BREAKING: #Israel's Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara admits, in a legal opinion submitted for review by the government tomorrow (Sunday), that it has annexed the occupied West Bank (in grave breach of international law). See for details:
1/3 The #Israeli government is set to allocate an additional 40 million ILS to 'Ariel University,' located in a West Bank settlement of the same name, due to its exclusion from international academic collaboration and exchange programs.
2/3 In her legal opinion, #Israel's Attorney General refers to 'Judea and Samaira' (the West Bank) as "geographic areas coming under the (authority) of the Government of Israel on 5 June 1967."
3/3 The International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ is due to decide on the legality of #Israel's occupation in June, with prohibited annexation (admitted by the head of the executive legal system) as the basis for determining it's presence in #Palestinian territory unlawful.
The flood gates were opened by Cabinet Secretary Fuchs last year, and now Israel's chief legal counsel follows a similar line:
BREAKING: #Israel's Ministry of Defense issued an 'Urgent Tender' due yesterday for 40,000 12-person tents. Simple math shows Israel is planning to accommodate 480,000 people, most likely #Palestinians forcibly displaced to #Rafah, as part of a planned ground offensive that would see them displaced again.
The political and practical arrangements for a #Rafah offensive continue; I would not read #Israel's redeployment of ground forces as the end of hostilities but as preparation for the next phase, which may prove to be even more devastating - bringing about mass displacement and deportation:
"The humanitarian crisis in #Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, with nearly the entire population forcibly displaced and facing dire shortages of essential goods and services for survival," said @NRC_Egeland, secretary general of @NRC_Norway.
#Gaza has become one of the world’s most dangerous areas, with civilians and aid workers facing unprecedented risks and indiscriminate attacks, in what amounts to gross and systemic violations of international law.
BREAKING: In the #Israeli High Court of Justice hearing of the petition by @Gisha_Access to order the State to remove impediments to humanitarian relief to #Gaza, the State Council makes two interrelated arguments:
1/3 First, #Israel is not the occupying power in #Gaza, with respect to Art.42 of the Hague Regulations, as it is not under its actual authority, but under that of Hamas. Counsel would like to share facts an 'in camera' session.
2/3 Second, #Israel complies with Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 70 of Additional Protocol I: as a belligerent - and not as an occupying power - it has allowed relief actions in #Gaza to be undertaken.
Two legal reflections on the expose by @yuval_abraham @972mag: #Israel's misapplication of 'continuous combat function,' and the low threshold for civilian harm. A thread: 972mag.com/lavender-ai-is…
1/10 In a non-international armed conflict (NIAC), an individual whose continuous function involves the preparation,
execution or command of operations amounting to direct participation in hostilities on behalf of an organized armed group is considered a member of that group.
2/10 That person is seen to have "continuous combat function" (CCF) and loses his protection against the dangers arising from military operations for the duration of that membership. Persons cease to be civilians within the meaning of IHL for as long as they hold 'CCF'.
#Israel’s 6-month offensive in #Gaza amounts to a 'war of debilitation,' characterized by the unlawful intent and attempt to bring the complete destruction and disintegration of all public life and institutions, as shown by a @WorldBank, @EU_Commission and @UN report:
The housing sector and population centers have sustained the majority of damages, estimated at 18.5 billion USD, equivalent to 97% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of West Bank & Gaza in 2022.
#Israel's 'debellatio' of #Gaza, aiming at the "complete and total defeat of an adversary, and the taking of "spoils of war" (the territory and sovereignty of the vanquished belligerent)," is quantitatively different to 14' (1.3 billion USD) and 21' (338 million USD) hostilities inflicted destruction.
The targeted killing by #Isarel of seven World Central Kitchen @WCKitchen humanitarian relief personnel in #Gaza is not a "tragic incident," as Israeli officials put it, but a culmination of normative problems, going back decades. A thread:
1/5 A permissive attitude on the use of force by #Israel in #Gaza has already led to the killing of numerous @UNRWA staff and the destruction of its premises, in breach of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the @UN:
2/5 In 2009, during hostilities in #Gaza, #Israel carried out direct and intentional strikes on #UN premises. The Board of Inquiry concluded that the attacks amounted to an egregious breach of the inviolability of premises, which could not be overridden by military expediency.