Israel bombed on Saturday Rafah, city that he considers key in his war against Hamas, despite the fact that International Court of Justice (ICJ) The day before, he ordered it to suspend its operations in that area at the southern end of the Gaza Strip.
(Also read: What real impact does the ICJ ruling requiring Israel to stop its military offensive in Rafah have on the ground?)
International contacts resumed in Paris, where American and Israeli representatives met, after a stalemate over the Israeli military operation in Rafah.
(You may be interested: Israel, the US and Qatar agree to resume talks for a truce with Hamas)
The highest judicial instance of the UN ordered Israel on Friday to stop its operation in this border city with Egypt and any other action that may cause the “total or partial physical destruction” of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The ICJ also demanded the opening of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza in Rafah, a humanitarian aid gateway that Israel closed at the beginning of the month when it began its operations in the city.
The court, whose decisions are binding even if it has no means to implement them, also urged the Islamist movement Hamas to immediately release all hostages captured in its October 7 attack against Israel.
But neither side appears to have heeded the court’s demands. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, reminded Israel that “the precautionary measures” dictated by the ICJ are “mandatory.”
“Also the ceasefire, the release of the hostages and humanitarian access,” he added. Finance ministers of the G7, a group of the seven largest industrialized economies, called on Israel to “guarantee” banking services to Palestinian banks, after Israel threatened this week to deny them access to its own system.
Relaunch negotiations
The Israeli army announced that several militants were killed in “hand-to-hand combat” on Friday in Jabaliya, in the north, and by “tank gunfire” in the center. He also claimed to have “eliminated a terrorist cell” in Rafah.
The conflict broke out on October 7, when Islamist commandos killed more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
The militiamen too They kidnapped 252 people. Israel claims that 121 remain kidnapped in Gaza, of which 37 have died. In response to the October attack, Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip, in which 35,903 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died so far, according to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry.
Indirect negotiations stalled in early May, shortly after the start of Israel’s ground operations in Rafah. On Saturday, a senior Israeli official told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that his country “intends to resume talks this week and there is an agreement.”
Israeli media indicated that the head of Mossad – the intelligence service -, David Barnea, agreed during meetings in Paris with the director of the CIA, William Burns, and the Qatari prime minister, Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, a new framework for conversations.
AFP
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