The International Court of Justice has issued a sweeping advisory opinion rejecting Israel’s claims that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was infiltrated by Hamas and ordering Israeli officials to cooperate with the agency to deliver aid to Gaza’s starving population.
The court ruled 10–1 that Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, bears full responsibility for ensuring that Palestinians receive sufficient food, water, fuel, and medical supplies. The decision follows nearly two years of severe aid restrictions and a total blockade that humanitarian experts say has created conditions of famine and widespread starvation.
ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa said Israel’s first obligation is to “ensure that the population of the occupied Palestinian territory has the essential supplies of daily life, including food, water, clothing, bedding, shelter, fuel, medical supplies, and services.” The ruling further directs Israel to “agree to and facilitate by all means at its disposal relief schemes on behalf of the population of the occupied Palestinian territory so long as that population is inadequately supplied, as has been the case in the Gaza Strip.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said he welcomed the “unambiguous ruling by the International Court of Justice” and that the agency stood ready to resume full operations in Gaza. “With huge amounts of food and other lifesaving supplies on standby in Egypt and Jordan, UNRWA has the resources and expertise to immediately scale up the humanitarian response in Gaza and help alleviate the suffering of the civilian population,” he said.
The ICJ found that Israel “had not substantiated its allegations that a significant number of UNRWA employees were members of Hamas.” Israel had sought to ban the agency from Gaza since January 2024, alleging—without evidence—that staff had participated in a Hamas-led attack the previous year. Multiple investigations by UN bodies and independent experts found Israel never provided proof for the claim.
Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft said that “yet another Israeli government lie—slavishly repeated by Western media—collapses.”
The ruling emphasizes that Israel’s obligations extend beyond permitting aid entry to ensuring its distribution. The court found that “an occupying power must do more than simply allow the passage of essential items into the occupied territory. It must also use all means at its disposal so that these items are distributed in a regular, fair and non-discriminatory manner, including by facilitating access to them and refraining from threats or use of violence or lethal force against the civilian population seeking to access such humanitarian aid.”
The judges also reaffirmed that Israel may not use starvation as a weapon of war, finding that “Israeli government blocked all UN aid into Gaza from 2 March to 18 May.” The court ruled that Israel’s self-created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “was not an adequate substitute,” and that the existence of such a body did not relieve Israel from the charge that it had used starvation as a method of warfare.
The ICJ determined that Israel’s mass transfers and forced displacement of Gaza’s civilian population violated the Geneva Conventions. The judges ruled that “Israel had no right to block aid, or force hundreds of thousands of people into crowded areas or to restrict the presence of UN ‘to a degree that creates conditions of life that would force the population to leave.’”
The court found that Israel has breached the immunities of UN premises and personnel. It ruled that the “immunities in the occupied territories do not cease to function at a time of war,” meaning that UN schools, hospitals, and shelters “must be treated as inviolable.” The judges said that it is for the UN, not Israel, to decide whether control of its premises has been lost.
Israel was further found to have violated the privileges and immunities of UN staff. The court declared that “Israel has a duty to respect the immunities of the UN personnel so long as they were acting in its official capacity in the occupied territories.”
The ICJ also ordered Israel to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to access Palestinian prisoners held inside Israel.
More than 450 Palestinians have died from starvation since Israel’s blockade began, and experts warn that the long-term effects—especially on children—may be irreversible. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a UN-backed agency, declared a famine in Gaza in August.
UNRWA has said it has roughly 6,000 trucks of food, medicine, and fuel ready to enter the territory. The agency reports that 360 of its staff members have been killed in the conflict, which has claimed the lives of more than 68,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said the ICJ opinion “comes at a moment in which we are doing everything we can to boost our humanitarian aid in Gaza. So the impact of this decision is decisive in order for us to be able to do it to the level that is necessary for the tragic situation in which the people of Gaza still is.”
Israel immediately dismissed the ICJ’s findings. Its foreign ministry stated that it “categorically rejected the court’s findings” and claimed that “Israel fully upholds its obligations under international law.” The U.S. State Department also rejected the ruling, accusing the court of “unfairly bash[ing] Israel” and repeating Israel’s debunked claims of UNRWA’s “deep entanglement with and material support for Hamas terrorism.”
Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Kravik said his country would seek a UN General Assembly resolution to enforce the opinion. “It has been Norway’s position for a long time now that Israel has an obligation to facilitate aid being delivered to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and that UN humanitarian organisations and third countries can deliver life-saving aid to Palestinians. This ICJ decision confirms that the UN should be responsible for delivering aid, and this is in line with what is set out in the Trump plan,” he said.
Step Vaessen of Al Jazeera reported that “even if Israel ignores [the advisory opinion], as it’s done time and time again, all the UN countries are obliged to follow up on this court’s advice.”
The ICJ’s opinion follows months of worsening humanitarian collapse. Between March and May, aid was completely blocked from entering Gaza. Israel intensified its restrictions again after ending a ceasefire in mid-2025. The court found that Israel’s actions placed it “in breach of its obligations” under both the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
The ICJ’s latest opinion arrives as the court continues to consider a separate genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa. In September, a UN commission of independent experts concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide and urged Western governments, including the United States, to halt military aid to Israel. The commission cited attacks that killed tens of thousands of civilians and public statements by Israeli officials demonstrating “intent to wipe out Gaza’s population of 2.1 million people.”
The World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said conditions in Gaza remain “catastrophic and beyond words,” adding that the territory faces a health “catastrophe” that will last for “generations to come.”
With the court’s advisory opinion reaffirming Israel’s obligations as an occupying power, international observers say attention will now turn to whether member states will act to enforce it through the UN General Assembly or other mechanisms.
“Even if Israel ignores it,” Vaessen reported, “all the UN countries are obliged to follow up on this court’s advice.”
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