Palestinians accuse Israel of ‘apartheid’ at ICJ hearing

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki yesterday told the UN’s top court his people were suffering “colonialism and apartheid” under the Israelis, urging judges to order an immediate and unconditional end to the occupation.

“The Palestinians have endured colonialism and apartheid… There are those who are enraged by these words. They should be enraged by the reality we are suffering,” Al-Maliki told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

The ICJ is holding hearings all week on the legal implications of Israel’s occupation since 1967, with an unprecedented 52 countries, including the United States and Russia, expected to give evidence.

The case arrived at the court after the UN General Assembly (UNGA) voted by a wide margin in December 2022 to ask the 15-judge panel for a non-binding advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation. The court will likely take months to make a ruling.

The ICJ in a separate case moved by South Africa in January ruled that Israel must do everything in its power to prevent genocide and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire, reports Reuters.

During yesterday’s hearing, the Palestinian minister said: “Justice delayed is justice denied and the Palestinian people have been denied justice for far too long.”

Summing up, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour struggled to hold back his tears as he called for a “future where Palestinian children are treated as children not as a demographic threat.”

Meanwhile, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said later on Sunday that Israel will launch its long-threatened offensive against Rafah next month if Hamas has not freed the remaining hostages held in Gaza by the start of Ramadan.

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, is expected to begin on March 10.

The Israeli government has not previously specified a deadline for its planned assault on the city where the majority of the 1.7 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.

At least 29,092 Palestinians have been killed and 69,028 injured in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said yesterday. In the past 24 hours, 107 Palestinians were killed and 145 injured, the ministry added in a statement.

Dozens of Israelis blocked Gaza-bound aid trucks from entering through the Nitzana crossing with Egypt, AFP reporters and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

Palestinians say they are going so hungry they are grinding animal feed into flour. “My children are starving, they wake up crying from hunger. Where do I get food for them?” a northern Gazan woman told AFP.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said nearly three in four people are drinking contaminated water. “The speed of deterioration in Gaza is unprecedented,” it said.

Israeli troops in Khan Yunis were still operating around the Nasser Hospital after the military said it had “located additional weapons”.

Israel has concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis, just a few kilometres from Rafah and the hometown of Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.