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Norway is to seek an international court of justice (ICJ) advisory opinion condemning the Israeli government for ending cooperation with the UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa.
The Israeli Knesset passed two bills last month banning Unrwa from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli state contact with the agency, moves that would prevent it from delivering aid to Gaza, after allegations by Israel that members of Unrwa staff in Gaza were involved in the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The UN launched an investigation into the Israeli claims and fired nine Unrwa staff as a result.
The UN agency has said Israel has destroyed or damaged two-thirds of its premises in Gaza, and 243 of its personnel have been killed.
The law passed on 28 October is due to be enforced within three months and is likely to be backed by the incoming Trump administration in the US.
Norway’s deputy foreign minister, Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, has been holding initial consultations at the UN in New York to discuss a draft resolution to be put to the UN general assembly that would urge an advisory opinion from the UN court seeking to protect the existence of Unrwa.
The move, which would be voted on next month, has the broad backing of the UN agency and a growing number of Arab states.
The Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said: “The international community cannot accept that the UN, international humanitarian organisations, and states continue to face systematic obstacles when working in Palestine and delivering humanitarian assistance to Palestinians under occupation.
“We are therefore requesting the international court of justice for an advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population, delivered by international organisations, including the UN, and states.”
The ICJ has already issued successive orders directing Israel as the occupying power to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza, but the latest request, if backed by the UN general assembly, would take the legal stand-off between Israel and the international courts into new territory.
Norway’s foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, said the Knesset’s legislation would have “severe consequences for millions of civilians already living in the most dire of circumstances” and “undermines the stability of the entire Middle East”.
Speaking at the UN security council on Monday, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said: “The situation is devastating and beyond comprehension, and frankly it is getting worse. It is totally unacceptable that it is harder than ever to get aid into Gaza. In October only 37 aid trucks reached Gaza, the lowest ever. There is no excuse for Israeli restrictions on aid.”
He emphasised that 300 UN staff had been killed in Gaza since the war began.
Philippe Lazzarini, Unrwa’s commissioner general, speaking in Geneva, said the agency was at one of the darkest moments in its history.
“I have drawn the attention of the member states that now the clock is ticking … We have to stop or prevent the implementation of this bill,” he told reporters, saying there was no alternative to the agency’s services in Gaza besides allowing Israel to take them over.
He said there was no plan B within the UN family if Israel ended all cooperation with the agency.
Previous case law shows that UN premises should be treated as inviolable under article 105 of the UN charter, even in the case of military conflict, and Israel agreed to pay compensation to the UN worth $10.4m (£8.2m) after the 2008-09 Gaza war.
A board of inquiry established by the then UN secretary general found that direct and intentional strikes carried out by Israel on Unrwa premises in Gaza “amounted to an egregious breach of the inviolability of the United Nations premises and a failure to accord the property and assets of the organisation immunity from any form of interference”.
The precedent has led those giving legal advice to Norway to argue it should request the general assembly, acting under the dispute settlement provision in the UN general convention, to give an urgent advisory opinion from the court as regards Israel’s actions in relation to Unrwa.
