Israel 'starving a nation'

VIOLATION: NO HUMANITARIAN AID HAS ENTERED GAZA SINCE MARCH - UN

- Faizel Patel

South Africa has told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel is deliberately depriving the people of Gaza of humanitarian aid and condemning an entire civilian population to starvation.

The remarks were delivered by the country's director-general for international relations, Zane Dangor.

South Africa is one of 40 countries delivering remarks before the ICJ this week to gauge Israel's responsibility for the humanitarian crisis engulfing Gaza during its war against Hamas.

Israel has not sent a delegation to the hearings, which began on Monday when United Nations' (UN) legal counsel Elinor Hammarskjold told the court it was a cold fact that no humanitarian aid has entered Gaza since March.

Dangor said the scale of the harms inflicted on Palestinians by Israel was laid out in detail during the hearings.

"We wish to emphasise the impunity with which Israel is inflicting these harms. Israel continues to act with impunity, as it does enjoy some form of exceptionalism from accountability to international law and norms.