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The top United Nations court Wednesday began its ruling on Israel’s obligations towards agencies providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, as aid groups scramble to scale up assistance following a ceasefire.International Court of Justice President Yuji Iwasawa opened the public hearing to deliver its “advisory opinion” laying out Israel’s duty to facilitate aid in Gaza.The UN asked the ICJ to clarify Israel’s obligations, as an occupying power, towards UN and other bodies “including to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival” of Palestinians.An ICJ opinion is not legally binding but the court believes it carries “great legal weight and moral authority”.ICJ judges heard a week of evidence in April from dozens of nations and organisations, much of which revolved around the status of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.Israel did not take part in the hearings but an official told journalists earlier Wednesday it was “an abuse of international law”.The official added that Israel “cooperates with international organisations, with other UN agencies regarding Gaza. But Israel will not cooperate with UNRWA.”Israel banned UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil after accusing some of its staff of taking part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked the war.A series of investigations, including one led by France’s former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA.However, the April 2024 report said Israel had “yet to provide supporting evidence” of its allegation that “a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations”.At the ICJ hearings in April, a US official raised “serious concerns” about the impartiality of UNRWA, and alleged that Hamas used the agency’s facilities.The US official, Josh Simmons, said Israel had “no obligation to permit UNRWA specifically to provide humanitarian assistance”.Simmons added that UNRWA was not the only option for delivering aid into Gaza.Palestinian official Ammar Hijazi told the ICJ judges that Israel was blocking aid as a “weapon of war”, sparking starvation in Gaza.- Aid ‘lifeline’ -UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has described his organisation as a “lifeline” for the nearly six million Palestinian refugees under its charge.The agency still has some 12,000 staff in Gaza and aims to play a major part in its reconstruction after the fragile ceasefire agreed earlier this month.More than 370 of UNRWA workers have been killed since the start of the war, according to the agency.On the eve of the ICJ ruling, Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), said 530 of the organisation’s trucks had crossed into Gaza since the ceasefire.Those trucks had delivered more than 6,700 tonnes of food, which she said was “enough for close to half a million people for two weeks”.Etefa said around 750 tonnes a day were now coming through, which, although more than before the ceasefire, remains well below WFP’s target of around 2,000 tonnes daily.Israel faces several cases under international law over its campaign in Gaza. In July 2024, the ICJ issued another advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful” and must end as soon as possible.ICJ judges are also weighing accusations, brought by South Africa, that Israel has broken the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with its actions in Gaza.Another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. It also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed in an airstrike.

The top United Nations court will rule Wednesday on Israel’s obligations towards agencies providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, as aid groups scramble to scale up assistance following a ceasefire.Judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague have been asked for an “advisory opinion” laying out Israel’s duty to facilitate aid in Gaza.The UN asked the ICJ to clarify Israel’s obligations, as an occupying power, towards UN and other bodies “including to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival” of Palestinians.An ICJ opinion is not legally binding, but the court believes it carries “great legal weight and moral authority”.ICJ judges heard a week of evidence in April from dozens of nations and organisations, much of which revolved around the status of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.Israel did not take part in the hearings but Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described them as “part of a systematic persecution and delegitimisation of Israel”.”It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and UNRWA,” he told reporters at the time.Israel banned UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil after accusing some of its staff of taking part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked the war.A series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA.However, the April 2024 report said Israel had “yet to provide supporting evidence” of its allegation that “a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations”.At the ICJ hearings, a US official raised “serious concerns” about the impartiality of UNRWA, and alleged that Hamas used the agency’s facilities.The US official, Josh Simmons, said Israel had “no obligation to permit UNRWA specifically to provide humanitarian assistance”.Simmons added that UNRWA was not the only option for delivering aid into Gaza.Palestinian official Ammar Hijazi told the ICJ judges that Israel was blocking aid as a “weapon of war”, sparking starvation in Gaza.- Aid ‘lifeline’ -UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has described his organisation as a “lifeline” for the nearly six million Palestinian refugees under its charge.The agency still has some 12,000 staff in Gaza and aims to play a major part in its reconstruction after the fragile ceasefire agreed earlier this month.More than 370 of UNRWA workers have been killed since the start of the war, according to the agency.On the eve of the ICJ ruling, Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), said 530 of the organisation’s trucks had crossed into Gaza since the ceasefire.Those trucks had delivered more than 6,700 tonnes of food, which she said was “enough for close to half a million people for two weeks”.Etefa said around 750 tonnes a day were now coming through, which, although more than before the ceasefire, remains well below WFP’s target of around 2,000 tonnes daily.Israel faces several cases under international law over its campaign in Gaza. In July 2024, the ICJ issued another advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful” and must end as soon as possible.ICJ judges are also weighing accusations, brought by South Africa, that Israel has broken the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with its actions in Gaza.Another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. It also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed in an airstrike.

Months after returning from the frontline in Gaza, Israeli army captain Israel Ben Shitrit says he is still haunted by the ghosts of the war he left behind.”The scream of the soldier asking for rescue… no matter where I am, I will always hear that scream,” he told AFP, speaking of a comrade he had been unable to save.Ben Shitrit was himself seriously wounded in combat in early 2024. His testimony comes as Israel faces a wave of suicides among troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the wake of several conflicts.And no war since the modern state of Israel’s creation in 1948 has mobilised as many soldiers or lasted as long as the one triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.The reserve officer told AFP there were many triggers that could spark disturbing flashbacks to his time in Gaza.”When I hear a helicopter, it takes me back to Khan Yunis,” he said, referring to the city in southern Gaza that was the scene of intense fighting.A fragile US-brokered ceasefire has offered a glimmer of hope for an end to hostilities more than two years after Hamas’s attack on Israel sparked the war.- ‘Invisible wound’ -An Israeli army report from July 2025 noted 9,000 requests for recognition of “psychological suffering” submitted to military health services since the latest Gaza war began.The 2014 Gaza conflict, which was also against Hamas but lasted less than two months, saw the Israeli military recognise 159 soldiers suffering from psychological trauma.Tuly Flint, a clinical social worker who specialises in PTSD derived from military combat, said the consequences of such trauma were wide-ranging.”People talk about the suicide rate, but that’s the tip of the iceberg,” he told AFP between appointments with returned soldiers.”We see violence, domestic violence. We see people split apart, couples split,” he explained. “We see many people collapse.”For Tom Wasserstein, whose organisation sets up care centres for traumatised soldiers, the issue is a deeply personal one.His younger brother Roi died from suicide at the age of 24 in July after more than 300 days of reserve duty as a military nurse in Gaza. The tragedy fuelled Wasserstein’s determination to help.”If one soldier dies from his wounds in combat, and another takes his own life because of what he has experienced, it means they have both been wounded,” Wasserstein said. “One by a bullet, the other in his head — but it is still a wound. It is… an invisible wound… and it deserves to be treated,” he added, explaining that his brother never spoke about his experiences on the battlefield.On the Israeli side, the October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Israel’s response caused more than 68,200 deaths, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is under Hamas authority. According to the Israeli army, 478 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza campaign since the beginning of the ground offensive at the end of October 2023.- ‘Injury to the soul’ -Soldiers suffering from PTSD have been camped out for several weeks outside the Israeli parliament to protest the lack of recognition of their trauma and demand an end to red tape around mental healthcare.Among those in the tent was veteran Micha Katz, who said 60 soldiers had died by suicide in recent months. Asked by AFP about suicide rates within its ranks, the Israeli military did not provide any statistics.Members of the nascent movement of traumatised soldiers have been invited to testify before the parliamentary defence committee to present their grievances.One of them is Yoann Dobensky, who said: “It’s not that we want to kill ourselves. It’s that we are tired of living after seeing the horrors of war”.”Post-traumatic stress disorder must be recognised as an injury, just like a physical injury. It’s no less serious than a physical injury, it’s an injury to the soul,” the veteran said.More than a year after being injured, army captain Shitrit said he was still being treated by doctors. Beyond his physical wounds, he told AFP he was also suffering from PTSD.”When someone is wounded, it also impacts those around them — their family, their children. Our children see everything, feel everything,” he said.

US Vice President JD Vance expressed “great optimism” that the Gaza truce would hold, ahead of a meeting Wednesday in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Vance is in Israel to shore up support for the US-brokered ceasefire and post-war reconstruction plans.Despite concerns in Israel that Hamas has seized on the pause to reassert itself in Gaza, Vance said Washington would not set a deadline for the group to disarm under the US-brokered deal.That came after US President Donald Trump warned that allied nations in the region would invade Gaza to wipe out Hamas if it failed to comply with the truce.  “What we’ve seen the past week gives me great optimism the ceasefire is going to hold,” Vance said during a press conference in Kiryat Gat, a city in southern Israel where a US-led mission is monitoring the Gaza ceasefire.”I think that everybody should be proud of where we are today. It’s going to require constant effort. It’s going to require constant monitoring and supervision,” he added.Vance is to meet Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, on Wednesday in Jerusalem.There have been tensions over the implementation of the ceasefire, with Hamas saying it needs time and technical assistance to find the remaining dead Israeli hostages under the rubble of the Gaza Strip.And, on Sunday, there was the worst outbreak of violence since the start of the truce. Two Israeli soldiers were killed, triggering a wave of retaliatory air strikes.Before Vance’s arrival, Trump gave a stark warning to Hamas.”Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have… informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and ‘straighten our [sic] Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.- ‘Very, very fragile’ -Opening a joint US-Israeli Civil-Military Coordination Centre in southwest Israel, Vance endorsed this, but played down Israeli pressure for a firm deadline.”I’m not going to do what the president of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it, because a lot of this stuff is difficult,” he said.Vance also said that US troops would not be deployed in Gaza but that the United States would take part in “useful coordination”.Hamas’s future is a key point of contention, with the ceasefire agreement ruling out a role for the group in Gaza.Israel has accused Hamas of breaching the terms of the ceasefire, though the group has repeatedly said it is committed to the agreement.But it has resisted the idea of disarmament and moved to reassert its control on the streets of Gaza since the start of the truce, clashing with armed clans.The group denied any involvement in Sunday’s deadly violence in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.Israel responded to its soldiers’ deaths with an intense wave of bombings that the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said killed 45 Palestinians.”The only thing stopping Israel from further destroying Gaza is Trump,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.Netanyahu, she told AFP, is “saying certain things to make Trump happy, but he’s doing other things, and the ceasefire is very, very fragile.” Zonszein added that Hamas’s future was “still very much something that Israelis are concerned” about.Despite the clashes, Hamas has continued to hand over the remains of deceased hostages in small numbers, as part of the ceasefire deal.The Israeli military said Wednesday the remains of two more hostages returned the day before had been identified.Before this, militants had released 13 of the 28 hostage bodies pledged to be returned under the deal, but Hamas has said the search is hampered by the level of destruction in the territory.The Red Cross said it facilitated on Tuesday the transfer of the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel to Gaza as part of the deal, taking the total to 165.- Hamas confidence -Hamas’s Gaza leader Khalil al-Hayya, in Cairo for talks with Egypt and Qatar, issued a statement expressing confidence the truce would hold. “What we heard from the mediators and from the US President reassures us that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has ended,” Al-Hayya said. The war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 68,229 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers credible.The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.