العربية
HE
العربية
HE
On May 18, 2025, Israeli human rights organizations Gisha, HaMoked, ACRI and PHR-Israel, submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice (HCJ), demanding that it order the Israeli Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and the government to immediately open the crossings to the Gaza Strip, and take all necessary and effective measures to ensure consistent and extensive supply of urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinian residents of Gaza.
Since March 2, 2025, Israel has blocked entry of all goods and humanitarian aid to Gaza, in a “political” decision aimed at harming the civilian population as a means of pressure. According to the petitioners, the policy constitutes prohibited collective punishment, as well as a violation of the prohibition on using starvation as a weapon of war that could amount to a war crime and even the crime of genocide.
The petition presents 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 organizations’ warehouses have run out.
The petitioners argued that living conditions in Gaza were now inhuman, with indescribable suffering: “Thousands of children are suffering from severe malnutrition and the number of deaths as a result has recently increased; the vast majority of residents suffer from shortages of food and clean water and struggle to survive; the collapsing healthcare system is unable to respond to the needs of the hungry, sick and wounded, of children, pregnant women and new mothers; shortages of medicine, medical equipment and fuel prevent proper operation of the few health facilities still functioning”.
On March 27, 2025, the HCJ rejected the organizations’ previous petition on the matter, unreservedly adopted the State’s position that Israel was not an occupying power in Gaza, as the petitioners claimed, but only a party to the hostilities. The Court completely ignored the dramatic change of policy to block all aid to Gaza. In the current petition, the organizations argue, among other things, that the decision to block aid is a clear violation even of the limited obligation acknowledged by the HCJ in the previous proceedings, that binds Israel as a party to the hostilities under the law of armed conflict.
“Hamas’s violations of international law do not diminish or erase the obligations imposed on Israel. The existence of future plans to renew supply of goods does not remedy the violations that the state is committing,” the petitioners emphasize. Additionally, they warn that: ”Each additional day that the crossings remain closed and every hour that aid is blocked for entry cause irreversible damage – to the sick, to infants, to children, to pregnant women, and to all civilians in Gaza”.
