Pleas for aid and peace resonate for Gazans

Scenes of suffering

Muhaisen, who was displaced from the border town of Jabalia to the north of Gaza City, said many people who have been displaced from the north of Gaza have come to Al Helou hospital and almost all are victims of explosives and shelling.

"I have seen all kinds, sadly," Muhaisen told China Daily. "Regarding the children I have seen, sometimes mothers with 5- to 7-year-olds come to me for baby milk formula to feed their children because they don't have anything else to feed them, which is really sad."

UN agencies and international humanitarian groups have accused Israel of weaponizing aid.

On Dec 19, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding Israel's responsibilities to facilitate aid to Palestinians provided by states and international organizations.

Drafted by Norway, the resolution passed with 137 votes in favor in the 193-member assembly. Israel, the US, and 10 other nations opposed it, while 22 countries abstained.

Describing the situation in Palestine as a "catastrophic" crisis that has evolved into a "dystopian nightmare", Andreas Kravik, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, emphasized the international community's obligation to respond.

Israel has repeatedly rejected claims it was restricting aid in Gaza, alleging that international organizations had failed to distribute the aid because of looting by Hamas.

However, a UN update on Monday said since the launch of the ground offensive by Israeli forces in northern Gaza, only 3 percent of food and water deliveries organized by the UN World Food Programme, or WFP, have been permitted to enter areas in northern Gaza.

The WFP had made 101 requests for allowing food delivery to areas in Gaza's north governorate since the offensive began but only three have been approved, including the Dec 20 convoy, according to the UN.

Israel passed a law in October banning the UNRWA from operating in the country. The country's legislation that drafted the law cited the involvement of some UNRWA staff members in the Oct 7, 2023, attack, linking them to Hamas and other armed groups, but without evidence.

Saul Takahashi, former deputy head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in occupied Palestine, said that Israel being held accountable is the only way international law and the institutions created to uphold international law "will regain any kind of credibility".

"Israel has been allowed to flout international law nonstop for decades without any consequences. That is in stark contrast to, for example, how the influential Western powers have treated Russia or Iran, the double standards are blatant," Takahashi, who is also a professor of human rights and peace studies at Osaka Jogakuin University in Japan, told China Daily.

Despite Israel's behavior, Omar Awadallah, Palestine's assistant foreign minister for the UN and Specialized Agencies, said they do not think international law has lost its credibility.

"The international law says that Israel is committing plausible genocide. The international law says that Israel violates all the international laws and norms… So we believe the credibility of international law is still there," said Awadallah.

"But unfortunately, there is a big failure by some countries to abide by the international law. The problem is in implementing the international law," he added.

The US has single-handedly vetoed resolutions of the United Nations Security Council on the conflict a couple of times this year.

Awadallah emphasized that the next step is to take action, not by condemning the illegalities of Israel, but "to confront the illegalities that Israel is doing in occupied Palestinian territories".