Gaza - New York: Europe and the Arabs

The United Nations Senior Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Reconstruction in Gaza, Sikhrid Kach, held talks on the sidelines of her current visit to Israel. According to the United Nations daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received this morning, the visit aims to hold meetings with Israeli officials and members of the Council of Ministers on the implementation of the Security Council resolution. No. 2720 on expanding aid access to Gaza.
Resolution 2720 - adopted by the Security Council on 22 December 2023 - calls for urgent steps to allow immediate, expanded, safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance, and to create the conditions necessary for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in the daily press conference that Ms. Kach stressed in her meetings with Israeli officials the urgent need and utmost importance to open more land crossings from Israel to Gaza in light of the deteriorating humanitarian situation, especially in the north, as highlighted by the latest assessment. For the Integrated Interim Classification of Food Security Phases.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report in Gaza stated that famine is imminent in the north of the Strip from mid-March until May. There are about 300,000 people in the two northern governorates of Gaza. The report estimates that half of the Strip's population, about 1.1 million people, will face catastrophic levels of hunger and the most severe levels of food insecurity over the next four months until mid-July if the conflict escalates, including a possible offensive operation in Rafah.
Sikhrid Kach also stressed the critical importance of scaling up assistance – massively and predictably – and the need for a safe and secure operating environment for the United Nations and its humanitarian partners in Gaza.
In line with Resolution 2720 and the UN mechanism, it also discussed proposals to simplify the supply route from Egypt and continue Rafah crossing operations as well as the sea corridor from Cyprus. Dujarric said that Ms. Kach will also go to Ramallah to hold meetings with the Palestinian Authority.
In the same regard, the International Court of Justice issued a decision yesterday, Thursday, stipulating the addition of other measures to the temporary measures requested by South Africa in its case against Israel related to the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The court said in a statement that the temporary measures included in its decision issued on January 26 in this case do not fully address the consequences arising from changes in the situation, which justifies amending these measures.
In its decision, the court explained that since January 26, the catastrophic living conditions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated further, especially in light of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are suffering from, and that Palestinians in Gaza Not only were they no longer facing the threat of famine, as stated in its previous resolution, but this famine was beginning to appear.
Additional temporary measures
Additional interim measures included in the court's decision included that Israel, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and in light of the deteriorating living conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of acute hunger and imminent famine, should take all necessary and effective measures to ensure - without Delay and in full cooperation with the United Nations:
Providing, without hindrance, and at scale, much-needed basic services and humanitarian assistance - including food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, humanitarian assistance, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies and medical care to Palestinians throughout Gaza - including by By increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and keeping them open for as long as possible.
The court also said in its decision that Israel must immediately ensure that its military forces do not commit acts that constitute a violation of any of the rights of Palestinians in Gaza as a group protected under the Genocide Convention, including by preventing through any action, and delivering urgently needed humanitarian aid. .
The court requested that Israel submit to it a report on all measures taken to implement this decision, within one month from its date.
It reiterated the temporary measures included in its decision of 26 January
The court said it issued its decision after duly considering South Africa's request of 6 March to include additional interim measures and/or amend its order of 26 January based on the change in the situation in Gaza and Israel's observations of 15 March. March on this request.
It is noteworthy that interim measures are orders issued by the court before its final ruling in a case, with the aim of preventing irreparable damage. Under it, the defendant state is obligated to refrain from taking certain measures until the court issues the final ruling.
Yesterday, Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the war cabinet ministers that an Israeli delegation would visit Washington next week, just one day after his office denied a White House statement that it had retracted its decision to cancel the visit of an Israeli delegation to discuss an Israeli plan to invade Rafah.
The newspaper quoted Israeli officials as saying that “Netanyahu realized that he had made a mistake” when he announced, last Monday, the cancellation of the delegation’s visit to Washington in the wake of the United States not using its veto against the UN Security Council resolution that adopted a draft resolution requiring an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Gaza during the month of Ramadan. The officials added, "Most cabinet ministers believed that not sending the delegation was wrong from the beginning and that the delegation should be sent there as quickly as possible." Israeli and American press reports suggested that the delegation's visit to Washington would take place early next month.