Human rights organisations have accused a judge in Israel’s top court of “cooperating with the state” as Tel Aviv implements a “policy of starvation, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.
Judge Yosef Elron of the High Court of Justice has granted the government 10 back-to-back extensions to a deadline for responding to an urgent petition that demands Israel ensure “consistent and extensive supply of urgent humanitarian aid” to Palestinians.
Instead of submitting its response, the Israeli government has repeatedly used extension requests as a tool to delay judicial proceedings since May 18, when the petition was filed by a group of human rights organisations.
Meanwhile, Israel's ongoing aid blockade in Gaza has caused an extreme hunger crisis in the besieged territory, where "deadly malnutrition among children is reaching catastrophic levels", according to UNICEF.
A joint statement by more than 100 global aid and rights organisations said on Wednesday that Israel’s “restrictions, delays, and fragmentation” under the government’s total siege of Gaza have created “chaos, starvation, and death” in the war-ravaged territory.
Even the so-called aid distribution system under the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is a cause of death for 800 Palestinian civilians.
The Israeli military has repeatedly shot starving civilians as they approach aid distribution centres to get food parcels, a war crime that has received widespread condemnation worldwide.
Human rights organisations, including Gisha, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, and Physicians for Human Rights, submitted a petition on May 18 to the HCJ, demanding that it direct Israel’s prime minister, minister of defence, and the government to immediately open the crossings to Gaza and ensure consistent and extensive supply of urgent humanitarian aid.
The latest deadline extension by the HCJ for the Israeli government to respond to the petition expires on July 24.
On March 2, Israel started blocking the entry of all goods and humanitarian aid to Gaza in a move to target the civilian population as a means of pressure.
Even though Israel claims that it eased restrictions after 11 weeks, the blockade is still in place after five months. Food has become dangerously scarce in Gaza, and access to clean water is “below emergency levels”.
Amnesty International says Israel is using starvation as a method of warfare and a tool to “commit genocide” against Palestinians in besieged Gaza.
‘A profound disregard to justice’
According to the petitioners, the Israeli policy in Gaza constitutes prohibited collective punishment, as well as a violation of the prohibition on using starvation as a weapon of war.
The petition lays out comprehensive factual evidence through a series of reports and testimonies describing systematic destruction of food production in Gaza, deliberate attacks on the healthcare system, as well as damage to civilian infrastructure.
As a result, prices of basic products remaining in the market have soared while residents’ purchasing power is extremely limited. Bakeries and community kitchens are closing, and supplies in aid organisations’ warehouses have run out.
Gisha has described the repeated extensions at the request of the Israeli state to delay its response to the petition as a “disgrace”.
Any further delay to the case will constitute a “profound disregard” of the Israeli state to Gazan civilians and its legal obligations, Gisha attorney Osnat Cohen-Lifshitz said in response to the state’s latest request for an extension.
She called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza a “direct result of the state’s use of humanitarian aid as a weapon”.
She also criticised Israel for replacing the established international aid distribution system under the UN and other reputed NGOs with a “private and military mechanism” that makes civilians “choose between starving to death or being shot”.
Judge Elron, who has approved each of the state’s 10 extension requests, is the only judge hearing the case. Gisha requested at the end of June, and once again last week, that Judge Elron expand the panel of judges to three when deciding on the extension requests due to the “severe and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza”. He turned down the request.
“In effect, the court is cooperating with the state by allowing it not to respond to the petition,” she said.
