The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is to deliver an advisory opinion on Israel's legal obligations towards UN agencies and other international organisations operating in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The UN's top court received a request from the General Assembly late last year after Israel's parliament passed laws banning any activity by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) on Israeli territory and contact with Israeli officials.

Israel accused Unrwa of being infiltrated by Hamas. The agency denied the claim, insisting it was impartial.

The ICJ was asked to also cover in its opinion Israel's duty to allow the unhindered delivery of essential supplies to Palestinians.

Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza after the start of its war with Hamas two years ago and has since restricted - and at times completely stopped - the entry of food and other aid for the 2.1 million population.

Before this month's ceasefire deal, UN-backed global experts had estimated that more than 640,000 people were facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity and that there was an entirely man-made famine in Gaza City. Israel rejected the findings, insisting it was allowing in sufficient food and blames Hamas for stealing aid.

The ICJ's panel of international judges was asked to clarify two questions in the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly in December: whether Israel's ban on Unrwa breaches UN conventions guaranteeing the independence of UN agencies, and whether Israel's restrictions on aid crossings into Gaza violate international humanitarian law.

While the opinion will be a non-binding legal clarification, it carries significant moral and diplomatic weight.

At the start of the hearings at The Hague, UN's Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs Elinor Hammarskjöld stated that, as the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel's obligations entail allowing UN entities to carry out activities benefitting the local population.

Israel regards the ICJ procedure as a political circus and an abuse of international law and institutions.

This is the first formal legal inquiry into whether a UN member state can lawfully exclude a UN agency from its territory, with implications extending far beyond the question of Unrwa itself.