The assault on Gaza: Between the principles of international law and the challenges of enforcement
Keywords:
Israeli assault/aggression on Gaza, international Law, maintenance of international peace and security, UN Security Council, International CriminalAbstract
This article addresses the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip as one of the most prominent examples of the crime of aggression in the modern era. Despite the formal definition and criminalization of aggression in the United Nations Charter and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, major powers continue to commit such crimes against weaker states and impose their control without any accountability. Since October 2023, the ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip has stood as a stark illustration of the international system’s failure to preserve global peace and security, particularly amid the divergent positions of UN bodies and the inability of their resolutions to enforce accountability and uphold justice.
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