China addressed the International Court of Justice with a stark claim: Gaza’s children starve by policy, not accident. Invoking the Hague Rules, Geneva Conventions and the Court’s July 2024 opinion, Beijing said Israel, as occupying power, must ensure food, medicine and safe passage for aid. Since war flared in October 2023, three ICJ orders have demanded unimpeded relief, yet crossings close, convoys stall and UNRWA is hit, pushing two million people toward famine. China framed the case as a test of multilateralism: if UN immunities cannot pierce a blockade, law bows to force. While nodding to a two‑state future, Beijing focused on immediate duties—lift the siege, protect aid workers, let supplies flow—and warned that engineered starvation is a war crime the ICC is already weighing. Geopolitics trails the briefs: BRICS capitals echo China, Western donors debate UNRWA funding, and a \$53 billion rebuilding bill waits on a cease‑fire that recedes daily. The Court’s next words won’t open gates, but could strip obstruction of its last legal cover and force every state to choose: cooperate or be complicit. Amid Gaza’s rubble children still ask whether law can outrun might; the answer will shape their world—and ours.
