As a major development in the status of a major international legal case, the ICJ has found that Israel violates the law regarding its policies on settlements and the utilization of natural resources in Palestine. The verdict has dealt a major setback to Israel’s sovereignty claim over the occupied territories.
In response to the ICJ decision, Britain’s foreign minister, David Lammy, told parliament that UNRWA, the body concerned with Palestinian refugees, had sat up to work ‘to the highest standards of neutrality’. Lammy also stated that the UK would continue to support the UN body by releasing £ 21 million ($27m) towards the problem-plagued agency.
In terms of suffering, casualty and destruction, the conflict has transcended the average grim prognosis, especially given the fact that the Israeli army has been accused of bombing the ninth Gaza Strip school sanctuary in less than two weeks in Gaza City. The attack resulted in the death of at least two refugees who were internally displaced Palestinians.
The total casualties incurred in Israel’s war on Gaza have been extremely high, with an estimate of thirty-eight thousand eight hundred and forty-eight killed and eighty-nine thousand four hundred and fifty-nine injured. The casualties of the attacks by Hamas on the 7th of October in Israel are put at 1,139 people, while dozens are still detained in Gaza.
Such developments only stress the fact that a prompt search for a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is necessary as both parties have been suffering from it for years.
