The International Court of Justice ofThe Hague ordered Israel to stop the military ground offensive in Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have found refuge, and to open the crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to allow the entry of humanitarian aid and allow investigators to enter the Palestinian enclave. This was stated by the President of the International Court of Justice in The Hague Nawaf Salam, defining The humanitarian situation in Rafah is ”disastrous”.
”The Court is not convinced that the evacuation efforts and related measures that Israel claims to have undertaken to enhance the security of civilians in the Gaza Strip, and in particular those recently displaced from the Rafah governorate, are sufficient to alleviate the ”immense risk to which the Palestinian population is exposed due to the military offensive in Rafah,” Salam declared.
”Israel – he added – must take effective measures to ensure free access to the Gaza Strip to any commission of inquiry or investigative body mandated by the competent bodies of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide.”
The Court has ordered the Israeli authorities to appear in court within a month to report on the progress made compared to the measures indicated today. So far, the judge underlined, the provisional measures adopted by Israel after the previous ICJ verdict on Gaza have not fully addressed the consequences of the situation.
Expressing “deep concern for the fate of the hostages” held since the October 7 attack in Israel Salam then called for “their immediate and unconditional release”. “We find it particularly worrying that many are still prisoners,” he added.
Israel’s response
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu asked for a consultation with some ministers after the ordinance. According to Canale 12, the meeting is attended by, among others, the Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin and the Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant.
“The response to the anti-Semitic court decision must be to occupy Rafah and increase military pressure on Hamas until we are victorious,” said Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, commenting on the Court’s order.
For Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, ”the fact that in its ruling the High Court in The Hague did not link the cessation of fighting in Rafah with the return of the hostages and Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism is a moral collapse”. ”It is Israel that was brutally attacked from Gaza and had to defend itself from a horrible terrorist organization that killed children, raped women and still launches rockets at innocent civilians,” he underlined on world that would not react with force to such an attack. This sentence could and should have been avoided,” she added.
Israel, Israeli war cabinet minister and National Unity party leader Benny Gantz said, is “obliged to continue fighting to return its hostages and ensure the safety of its citizens, at all times and places, including in Rafah”. “We will continue to act according to international law in Rafah and wherever we operate, and we will make every effort to avoid harming the civilian population. Not because of the Hague Tribunal, but above all because of who we are,” he added.
Meanwhile, new news on Israeli military actions and in particular on hunting daids in the Shaboura refugee camp in the center of the city of Rafah. According to information from the BBC, the attack began shortly after the order of the International Court of Justice, which asked Israel to stop the military offensive against Rafah.
The British network quotes an activist who is in the nearby Kuwaiti hospital and spoke of terrifying explosions and thick columns of smoke on the Shaboura field. The Times of Israel also relaunched the news from Palestinian sources reporting a massive Israeli air raid in the Shaboura area.
South Africa’s request
The ruling from the International Court of Justice comes after South Africa had asked to order Israel to implement a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Pretoria described the Court’s ruling as “revolutionary”. ”This order is binding and Israel must respect it”, reads a note from the Department of International Relations of South Africa. “I think it is a very clear and stronger request, in terms of wording, for the cessation” of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told public broadcaster Sabc.
The sentences of the International Court of Justice, which adjudicates disputes between states, are binding, but the legal body does not have the power to guarantee their implementation. However the ruling against Israel increases international legal pressureeven after International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday that he would seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas leaders.
Hamas: “Decision not enough”
“The decision of the International Court of Justice” on Rafah”it is not enough,” says Hamas in a statement calling for an end to the “war throughout the Gaza Strip”.
The Palestinian Authority, for its part, welcomed the ordinance, underlining that it is the expression of an “international consensus” to “end” the “war in its entirety against the Palestinian people”, said the spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh, quoted by Sky News Arabia.
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