The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Sunday that blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza by Israel constitutes as a crime within the court’s jurisdiction, as Israel continues to restrict the delivery of much-need supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Karim Khan told reporters in Cairo, “Impeding relief supplies as provided by the Geneva Conventions may constitute a crime within the court jurisdiction.”
He was speaking after a visit to Egypt’s Rafah crossing, where he said trucks full of desperately needed goods remained stuck and incapable of crossing into Gaza.
He said, “I saw trucks full of goods, full of humanitarian assistance stuck where nobody needs them, stuck in Egypt, stuck at Rafah. These supplies must get to the civilians of Gaza without delay.”
Rafah is the only access point through which international aid is currently able to enter the Palestinian territory, which is encountering a near-total siege and severe Israeli bombardment.
Israel’s strikes have killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Palestinian health ministry in the territory said.
Israel imposed the siege and unleashed its massive bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen launched an incursion across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Since narrow aid deliveries resumed through the Rafah crossing on October 21, only a total of 117 trucks have entered.
Before the siege, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered Gaza every day to deliver aid to its impoverished residents.
Khan said that he wanted “to underline clearly to Israel that there must be discernible efforts without further delay to make sure civilians (in Gaza) receive basic food, medicines”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said that the situation was “growing more desperate by the hour” as death numbers increased and basic supplies of food, water, medicine, and shelter dwindled.
Khan said his office had a continuous probe into “any crimes committed on the territory of Palestine and any crimes committed, whether it’s by Israel and Palestine or whether it’s acts committed on the territory of Palestine or from Palestine into Israel”.
Khan said, “This includes current events in Gaza and also current events in the West Bank.”
He said that he was “very concerned also by the increase of the number of reported incidents of attack by settlers against Palestinian civilians” in the territory Israel has occupied since 1967.
