Gaza War: ICJ orders Israel to end Rafah offensive

The UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), issued a dramatic ruling, ordering Israel to “immediately end its military offensive in Rafah.”

Last week, she supported a South African petition that called for a number of measures against Israel, accusing it of escalating what it considers genocide.

Presiding Judge Nawaf Salam said the situation in Gaza had deteriorated since the court ordered Israel to take steps to improve it.

Israel vehemently denied the allegation and indicated it would ignore any orders to stop its operations.

Reading the court’s judgment on Friday, Nawaf Salam said that “Israel must immediately end its military offensive and any other actions in the Rafah governorate” that could result in “the physical destruction” of the Palestinians – referring to which constitutes genocide under international law.

Israel, he added, must also allow unhindered access to Gaza for any UN body investigating allegations of genocide.

The decision also reiterated the demand for Israel to allow “the unhindered and large-scale provision” of basic services and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“The humanitarian situation (in Gaza) must now be described as disastrous,” the judgment said.

Israel rejected the court’s ruling and said its military offensive in Gaza complied with international law.

“Israel has not carried out and will not carry out military operations in the Rafah region that create living conditions likely to provoke the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part,” said the adviser to the national security, Tzachi Hanegbi, in a joint statement with foreign authorities. ministry.

War Minister Benny Gantz said Israel would continue its offensive “wherever and whenever necessary – including Rafah.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour welcomed the decision and called on Israel to respect it.

“We hope that the ICJ resolutions will be implemented without hesitation,” he said. “It’s obligatory. And Israel is a party to the convention.”

Following the announcement of the ICJ ruling, the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the bloc’s commitment to the rule of law and its support for Israel “will be quite difficult to be made compatible.

Humanitarian agencies and the UN say the amounts of aid reaching Gaza’s people, who they say are facing famine, are insufficient.

The UN suspended food distribution in Rafah on Tuesday due to the perilous situation there. Israel says it has made “considerable efforts” to ensure that humanitarian aid “flows into Gaza”.

Judge Salam also said the court found it “deeply troubling” that Israeli hostages were still being held by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, and called for “their immediate and unconditional release.”

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the decision, calling it an “abject moral failure” because the ICJ did not link the bombing of Rafah to the release of the hostages.

The head of South Africa’s foreign ministry, Zane Dangor, called the decision “revolutionary”, referring to the fact that it is the first time the court has explicitly ordered Israel to suspend all action in part of Gaza .

Hamas said it welcomed the decision which it said “demands that the brutal Zionist entity (Israel) cease its aggression” in Rafah.

Minutes after the decision was made, Israeli military planes carried out a series of airstrikes on the Shaboura camp in central Rafah.

A local activist at the nearby Kuwait Hospital told the BBC that rescue teams from the hospital had been unable to reach the site of the raids due to their intensity.

Israel launched a long-awaited offensive in Rafah about three weeks ago, promising to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there. He said he believed Israeli hostages were also being held in the city.

The UN says more than 800,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since the offensive began. Around 1.5 million people have taken refuge there to escape fighting elsewhere in Gaza.

The hearing is part of a case South Africa brought before the ICJ in December claiming Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. This matter is ongoing.

Israel began its offensive in Gaza after gunmen from Hamas, the organization that ruled the territory, attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking 252 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Since then, at least 35,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.