The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to halt its military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel insists it has the right to defend itself from Hamas militants and is unlikely to comply with the ruling.
Quick Read
- Top United Nations court orders Israel to halt military operations in southern Gaza city of Rafah:
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to cease its military operations in Rafah, Gaza.
- Israel maintains its right to self-defense against Hamas militants and is unlikely to comply with the ruling.
- This order adds to the international pressure on Israel to limit its actions in Gaza.
- This is the third time this year that the ICJ has issued orders to reduce the death toll and alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza.
- Despite being legally binding, the ICJ lacks enforcement capabilities.
- The court opened a hearing to address the request for Israel to halt and withdraw from Gaza, but compliance is doubtful.
- Criticism of Israel’s actions has been growing, including warnings from the U.S. and recognition of Palestine by three European countries.
- Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces domestic pressure to end the war triggered by a Hamas-led attack.
- ICJ rulings can impact Israel’s international standing but lack enforcement power, as seen with Russia’s defiance over its Ukraine invasion.
- Israel signaled it would ignore the ICJ’s order, emphasizing its right to protect its citizens.
- South Africa filed a genocide accusation against Israel, seeking interim orders to protect Palestinians.
- The ICJ has previously found Israel’s actions to pose significant risks to Palestinians.
- Gaza’s Health Ministry reports over 35,000 Palestinian deaths due to Israel’s offensive.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and top Hamas leaders for war crimes.
The Associated Press has the story:
The Top UN Court orders Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah
Newslooks- THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) —
The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to halt its military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel insists it has the right to defend itself from Hamas militants and is unlikely to comply with the ruling.
The order by the International Court of Justice further ratchets up international pressure on an increasingly isolated Israel to rein in its war on Hamas in Gaza.
Friday’s decision marked the third time this year the 15-judge panel has issued preliminary orders seeking to rein in the death toll and alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza. While orders are legally binding, the court has no police to enforce them.
The court’s president, Nawaf Salam, read out the ruling, as a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside.
Fears expressed earlier “with respect to the developments in Rafah have materialized and that the humanitarian situation is now to be characterized as disastrous,” the ruling said.
The court did not call for a full cease-fire throughout Gaza as South Africa had requested at hearings last week.
The top United Nations court opened a hearing Friday to rule on a request to order Israel to halt its military operation in Gaza and withdraw from the enclave. While Israel is unlikely to comply with any such order, it would heap more pressure on the increasingly isolated country.
Criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza has been growing — even from its closest ally, the United States, which warned against an invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter from fighting elsewhere. And this week alone, three European countries announced they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor for another U.N. court requested arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, along with Hamas officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also under heavy pressure at home to end the war, which was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people, most civilians, and taking some 250 captive. Thousands of Israelis have joined weekly demonstrations calling on the government to reach a deal to bring the hostages home, fearing that time is running out.
While the International Court of Justice has broad powers to order an end to the Israeli military campaign and any such ruling would be a blow to Israel’s international standing, it does not have a police force to enforce its orders. In another case on its docket, Russia has so far ignored a 2022 order by the court to halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Israel signaled it, too, would brush off an ICJ order to stop its operations. “No power on earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza,” Avi Hyman, the government spokesperson, said in a press briefing Thursday.
The court’s president, Nawaf Salam, opened Friday’s hearing, as a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside.
The cease-fire request is part of a case filed late last year by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide during its Gaza campaign. Israel vehemently denies the allegations. The case will take years to resolve, but South Africa wants interim orders to protect Palestinians while the legal wrangling continues.
At public hearings last week at the International Court of Justice, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, urged the panel of 15 international judges to order Israel to “totally and unconditionally withdraw” from the Gaza Strip.
The court has already found that Israel’s military operations pose a “real and imminent risk” to the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The operation has obliterated entire neighborhoods, sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their homes, and pushed parts of the territory into famine.
“This may well be the last chance for the court to act,” Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who is part of South Africa’s legal team, told judges last week.
Israel rejects the claims by South Africa, a nation with historic ties to the Palestinian people.
“Israel takes extraordinary measures in order to minimize the harm to civilians in Gaza,” Tamar Kaplan-Tourgeman, a member of Israel’s legal team, told the court last week.
In January, ICJ judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive. In a second order in March, the court said Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation.
The ICJ rules in disputes between nations. A few kilometers (miles) away, the International Criminal Court files charges against individuals it considers most responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
On Monday, its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said he has asked ICC judges to approve arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three top Hamas leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Israel is not an ICC member, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.
