White House remains silent as top UN court orders Israel to end Rafah attack

Joe Biden said a few months ago that a major Israeli offensive in the city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians took refuge during the war, would constitute a “red line” that would force him to reconsider American support for the long-time ally.

Since then, more than 800,000 people have fled Israeli bombardments in the southern Gaza city and humanitarian agencies have compared with the situation there is “hell on earth”. And yet the president has shown no signs of implementing his words.

His administration now faces even greater pressure to act after the International Court of Justice on Friday ordered Israel to “immediately end its military offensive” in Rafah in a historic emergency ruling that invoked the Convention on the genocide.

Dr. HA Hellyer, a specialist in security and Middle East studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Biden administration risks “a major blow to American credibility, such as it is,” if it fails to not to support the court order.

“The ICJ decision is not abstract nor does it require detailed interpretation. It’s very clear,” he said. “This is the highest court in the world, and they have declared that any action in Rafah that could lead to the destruction of the Palestinians must stop immediately. So you either support international law or you don’t.”

Mr. Biden has repeatedly expressed his strong opposition to a major offensive in Rafah, which has become the last refuge for more than a million Palestinians who have fled the war raging in other parts of Gaza. This is also where most humanitarian agencies operate.

In an interview given in March to MSNBCWhen asked if an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a red line for him, he replied: “It is a red line but I will never leave Israel. Israel’s defense remains crucial. »

Its officials have repeatedly said the United States would not support a “major military operation” in the southern Gaza city without a “credible… enforceable” plan to protect civilians.

Earlier this month, the president went so far as to suspend a shipment of heavy weapons to Israel as it prepared its attack on the city. But he has taken no additional steps to restrict Israel’s use of American-made weapons, despite long-standing U.S. law banning arms transfers to countries that violate international humanitarian law.

In the absence of any concrete threat of consequences from Mr. Biden, Israel pushed back on the president’s concerns and launched an attack on Rafah that forced 800,000 people to flee and forced the closure of the main crossing for humanitarian aid to the territory, even though Famine grips northern Gaza.

Israeli bombings killed at least 60 Palestinians on Thursday, according to to the Palestinian health authorities, and the tanks advanced into the southeast of the city.

Humanitarian agencies on the ground are painting an increasingly apocalyptic picture of the situation.

Suze van Meegan, emergency response manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Gaza, described Rafah as “three entirely different worlds”.

“The East is an archetypal war zone, the center is a ghost town and the West is a cluttered mass of people living in deplorable conditions,” she said. in a report.

These descriptions stand in stark contrast to the sanitized statements from the White House. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday that the Israeli operation in Rafah was “more focused and limited” and “did not involve major military operations deep in dense urban areas.”

He said there was “no mathematical formula” to assess the scale of the attack, but added: “What we will look at is whether this operation caused a lot of death and destruction or if it is more specific and precise. proportional.”

Dr Hellyer said Mr Biden’s red line in Rafah “has been broken almost every day since he made that statement” as Israel launched a military operation in the city, forcing the administration to a series of reversals and equivocations.

“The only way to keep this ‘red line’ was for DC to try to reshape it. So it became incredibly wavy. It’s more about not using big, big, big bombs, and very quickly, but if they do something else, and over a longer period of time, then they won’t consider breaking the red line. he added. . “It’s weird.”

The State Department and White House did not respond to requests for comment.

In his ruling on Friday, ICJ President Nawaf Salam said fears about an operation in Rafah had “materialized” and “the humanitarian situation must now be described as dire.”

In addition to ordering a halt to the offensive, the court also ruled that Israel must keep the Rafah crossing into Egypt open “to provide basic services and humanitarian aid on an unhindered and large scale.” which he urgently needs.”

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said in response to the decision: “We will continue to operate in accordance with international law wherever we may operate, while protecting the civilian population to the best extent possible. Not because of the ICJ, but because of who we are and the values ​​we defend.

Friday’s decision is particularly uncomfortable for the Biden administration, as it has spent several years promoting the idea of ​​a “rules-based order,” a term for the use of international law to govern relations between states .

Mr. Biden has used the phrase at least 16 times since taking office, and the variant “rules-based international order” six times, according to a tally by The independent.

The move also follows an announcement earlier this week by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, for crimes against humanity. .

The Biden administration denounced the decision, saying the ICC did not have jurisdiction over the conflict to enforce arrest warrants.

The president now faces a choice between doubling down and contradicting a second international tribunal in the space of a week, or upholding his previously stated red lines and reconsidering U.S. support for Israel’s devastating war.