The Hague/Rafah, Feb 19: Historic hearings opened on Monday at the United Nations’ top court into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state. The hearings are to last six days before the International Court of Justice. Monday’s session started with Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki speaking as a representative of the Palestinians. The hearings follow a request submitted by the U.N. General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion into Israel’s policies in the occupied territories. Though the case opens at the court’s Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel’s open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem. The Palestinian legal team is expected to tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid.
“We want to hear new words from the court,” said Omar Awadallah, the head of the U.N. organisations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. Israel is not scheduled to speak during the hearings, but could submit a written statement.
Over 29K Palestinians killed: Gaza Health Ministry
More than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Monday, marking another grim milestone in the deadliest round of violence in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until “total victory” against Hamas, raising fears that troops will soon move into the southernmost town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, where over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. The United States, Israel’s top ally, says it is still working with mediators Egypt and Qatar to try to broker another cease-fire and hostage release agreement. But those efforts appear to have stalled in recent days, and Netanyahu angered Qatar, which has hosted Hamas leaders, by calling on it to pressure the militant group. (AP)
