Cairo highlights brutal onslaught in Gaza; advocates 2-state solution
Participating in the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory opinion on Israeli violations in Palestine, Egypt said Palestinians have endured forced displacement, collective punishment, and random violence for 75 years by the Israeli occupation, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zaid stated.
The advisory opinion, which includes fifty-two states and three international organisations, was requested by the United Nations General Assembly from the ICJ in 2022, regarding the legal consequences of the Israeli policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
Jasmine Moussa, Legal Advisor at the office of the Foreign Minister, presented Egypt’s statement at the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) on Wendesday.
Moussa highlighted Israel’s ongoing “brutal onslaught” in Gaza, where 29,000 innocent civilians have been killed and almost 2.3 million people were forcibly transferred and displaced in violation of international humanitarian law.
“Israel is deliberately creating conditions that are intended to make life in Gaza impossible, imposing siege and starvation, including by impeding humanitarian access,” Moussa stressed.
She warned against Israel’s impending attack on Rafah, where 1.4 million people have sought refuge.
Moussa added that Israel continues its policy of mass forcible expulsion of Palestinian civilians, all while the Security Council repeatedly fails to call for a ceasefire.
Furthermore, Moussa underscored Israeli illegal practices in the West Bank, where it is escalating attacks, demolishing Palestinians’ homes, and supporting settlers’ violence.
“Increased settlement activity in the West Bank continues to erode the basis of a two-state solution, dimming prospects of a lasting peace in the region,” she said.
These Israeli policies, she added, are part of a broader plan to uproot Palestinians from their land.
Moussa stated that these ongoing grave violations of international law by Israel, the occupying power, are part of “a wider plan that seeks to change the demographics of the occupied Palestinian territories, evacuate the Palestinians from their land and impose Israeli sovereignty over it.”
Moussa confirmed the jurisdiction of the ICJ to grant an advisory opinion on Israeli practices in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, expressing astonishment that some states object to this jurisdiction.
“It is shocking that at this critical moment some states would rather see this court abscond responsibility as the principle judicial organ of the UN by declining to render this advisory opinion. What message does this send about these states’ respect to international justice and the rule of law?” Moussa asked.
The Middle East yearns for peace, stability, and a comprehensive, lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Moussa said.
The resolution should be based on the principles of international law and include the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, she added.
Egypt’s representative said Palestinians have been subjected to the longest occupation in modern history, slamming Israel’s policies of implanting settlements in the West Bank and the occupied Jerusalem to create “facts on the ground” in violation of the international law confirming its illegal nature.
She noted that 20 years ago, Palestine representatives laid out before the court Israel’s intensive colonisation and settlement policy that had at the time transferred 400,000 illegal settlers to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Currently, the figure stands at 750,000, she added, noting that such measures aim to alter the status of the occupied territories.
