Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports that Israel will not participate in oral proceedings at the International Court of Justice.

“We might not get a detailed look at what Israel’s defence is until some way down the line, because of its absence from the proceedings here in our coverage over the next five days or so,” he reports.

“We are not going to hear from an Israeli representative standing up in the court behind me and arguing Israel’s case.”

According to Challands, Israel has submitted written advice and objections, but they will not be participating in the actual verbal proceedings.

“However, we do have some idea of what they might be saying, because in the UK last week, lawyers representing Israel said in a paper that it had a right to terminate the agreement with UNRWA and ban the agency’s activities on its sovereign territory, especially in wartime,” Challands adds.

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