The International Court of Justice (ICJ) continues this week with hearings seeking to define the scope of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power in the Gaza Strip. Amid growing international outcry for an end to the siege and urgent entry of humanitarian aid, the US stance has generated concern and criticism over its apparent implicit support for Israeli restrictions.
During the third day of hearings, Josh Simmons, representative of the US State Department, assured that Israel “has no obligation to cooperate with UNRWA”, the UN agency in charge of relief for Palestinian refugees, despite the fact that thousands of civilians depend exclusively on this aid to survive. This position contrasts with article 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which obliges the occupying power to facilitate the entry of assistance when the population is not sufficiently supplied.
The US position, which is based on flexible interpretations of international law, represents a dangerous permissiveness to the actions of Israel, whose blockade of Gaza has now reached 60 days without allowing the entry of food, water or medicines. The consequences are devastating: according to UN figures, more than 52,000 Palestinians have died since 7 October 2023, and the World Food Programme warns that all its bakeries in Gaza have ceased operations, while the last supplies are running out.
The national security argument and UNRWA’s alleged bias are used by Israel, and now reinforced by its US ally, as a justification for denying essential aid. However, the principles of humanitarian law cannot be suspended by suspicion or military objectives. The protection of civilian life must take precedence over strategic calculations, especially in a context where the UN warns of a developing “large-scale famine”.
What is being observed is not simply a military strategy: it is a prolonged siege that threatens the very existence of the Palestinian population in Gaza. The international community must stop treating Israel as an exception to international norms. While the attacks of 7 October were tragic, they cannot justify a prolonged campaign of collective punishment against more than two million civilians trapped in an enclave with no way out, food or safe shelter.
By exercising its veto in the Security Council and by relativizing Israel’s obligations, the United States risks becoming a silent accomplice to an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy. While thousands of children and families are forced to flee again and again, humanitarian aid cannot be treated as an optional privilege, but as an urgent and vital right.
It is time for the international community, including the US, to exert strong and coordinated pressure on Israel to comply with its international obligations, allow immediate humanitarian assistance and end its indiscriminate siege on Gaza and surrounding areas. Not to do so would be to accept, by omission, the continuity of a humanitarian catastrophe that history will hardly forget.
