Unrwa – both of which Israel has barred in Gaza. Israel stopped allowing aid into Gaza on 2 March, which it said was to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages. The UN and aid agencies say food and supplies are running out in Gaza, which Israel denies.

Last year Israel severed ties with Unrwa, accusing it of colluding with Hamas. The hearings at The Hague are expected to last for five days, though a ruling could take many months. Ammar Hijazi, the Palestinian ambassador to International Organisations in The Hague, opened the hearings with a disturbing and graphic testimony. He accused Israel of a "genocidal campaign" against the Palestinians, adding that Israel's "crimes" put Palestinians at risk of irreparable harm.

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, at times his voice breaking, hands shaking, told the judges it has "never been more painful to be Palestinian". He said Israel was seeking "deliberately to deprive the population in Gaza" to ensure it has "no way to survive" and that people were "trapped between death and displacement".

He described Unrwa as a "shining example of multilateralism at the UN" and called for a place where Palestinian families could be "reunited in life rather than death". In a statement coinciding with the start of the hearings, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it had decided "not to take part in this circus". "It is another attempt to politicise and abuse the legal process in order to persecute Israel," he said. (BBC)