UNICEF on Saturday urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza to avoid placing the lives of 1 million children at risk – citing the country’s obligations under international law.
According to the statement, no aid has entered Gaza since March 2, resulting in “shortages of food, safe water, shelter, and medical supplies.”
UNICEF warned that children receiving malnutrition treatment are “at serious risk” following displacement orders and bombardments since Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza, whereas the repairment of waterpoints and wells has entirely stopped.
According to Edouard Beigbeder, the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, thousands of pallets of aid have not been able to enter Gaza, and most of it is of lifesaving importance.
Under Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), each high contracting party, in this case a state, is obligated to allow free passage of medical supplies, essentials, and items for religious worship intended for civilians. The obligation is conditional upon all aid not being diverted and that its distribution does not befit the enemy’s military.
Article 55 of the convention states that occupying powers have the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies to the population. Particularly, the article notes that the occupying power must bring necessary “foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.” According to UNICEF, for example, access to drinking water for one million people has dropped from 16 liters a day to 6 liters a day.
Israel ratified the Geneva Conventions in 1951. Under international humanitarian law, Israel is considered the “Occupying Power” in the “Occupied Territories” of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which it captured during the 1967 war.
In March, Israel resumed its military operation in Gaza, breaking the ceasefire deal reached in the last days of the Biden administration. According to Amos Harel, a defense affairs columnist for Haaretz newspaper, Israel knowingly broke the ceasefire because it did not want to commit to the provisions of the deal. However, both Israel and the US cited the reluctance of Hamas to release more hostages as the reason for the resumption of hostilities.
