The highest UN court will announce this Friday its decision on the additional precautionary measures requested by South Africa against Israel due to its military offensive in Rafah, in the southern tip of Gaza. These include the “immediate” withdrawal of troops and the “cessation” of operations in this area that was home to 1.4 million people (the vast majority displaced from other parts of the strip) before the Israeli army ordered their forced displacement.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule a week after the public hearings held last Thursday and Friday, in which Pretoria denounced that Israel’s “institutionalized impunity” is allowing the “annihilation” of the Palestinians of Gaza, with the offensive in Rafah as the “final phase” of that “destruction.” Therefore, he requested that the court in The Hague, Netherlands, take precautionary measures to avoid a “genocide” against the Palestinians of Gaza. South Africa also asked to demand that Israel “in a clearly explicit manner” cease its military activities throughout the strip.
The ICJ has convened a public hearing for 3:00 p.m. Dutch time at the Peace Palace in The Hague, during which the judge and president of the Court, Nawaf Salam, will read the decision reached after hearing the arguments of the two parties last week. , South Africa and Israel, on the need for these additional precautionary measures.
The origins of this case date back to December 29, when South Africa initiated proceedings against Israel and accused it of violating the Genocide Convention with its war in Gaza, and considered it necessary to demand, in a prior phase of the trial, the Israeli Government the taking of precautionary measures to avoid a genocide in the strip.
The ICJ concluded on January 26 that the risk of genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza was “plausible” and then indicated precautionary measures for which it asked Israel to take “immediate and effective” steps to prevent this crime, and to punish any incitement to extermination. of the Palestinians, although he did not demand a “ceasefire” as South Africa had requested. The Israeli government was defiant of the court’s mandate.
In February, given the continuing humanitarian massacre in Gaza, South Africa requested additional measures, a request that was rejected by the court. But on March 28, in response to a new request from Pretoria, the ICJ indicated additional measures, warning that civilians in the strip “no longer only face a risk of famine,” as it had warned in January, but that “famine is already setting in” and “the catastrophic living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza have worsened even more.”
The ICJ demanded that Israel prevent its army from committing acts of genocide or “preventing, by any action, the delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance.” However, on May 10, South Africa appealed to the court again, considering that the Israeli military offensive in Rafah “amounts to a change” in the situation. Gazans fleeing the Israeli offensive in other parts of the Palestinian enclave take refuge in Rafah.
In its intervention last Friday, Israel defended that its war in Gaza is “tragic” and has “a terrible human price”, but denied that it was a “genocide”, and asked the court not to get involved in “the micromanagement of operational aspects of an armed conflict.” He also argued that the operations in Gaza are in self-defense and are aimed at Hamas militants who attacked Israel on October 7. And he justified his operation in Rafah by the presence of four Hamas strongholds.
The measures required by the ICJ are always legally binding, although this court has no mechanisms to enforce compliance and they have been ignored in the past (including by the United States and Israel). An Israeli government spokesman said Thursday that “no power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and persecuting Hamas in Gaza.” Friday’s decision focuses solely on issuing injunctions; it will likely be years before the court can rule on the broader charge of genocide.
Far from listening to South Africa’s demands, Israel is expanding its offensive in Rafah, where it says a million civilians have fled. “This operation will grow, with more forces on the ground and more forces from the air,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Thursday. Israel is operating with care and precision, according to military spokesman Daniel Hagari, amid concerns from the United States and other countries about the threat to the local population.
The city, which borders Egypt, had around 1.4 million civilians before the Israeli army forced them to move for the umpteenth time in early May. Most of those people fled there after war broke out between Israel and Hamas in October, something Israel encouraged when its forces initially concentrated on the northern parts of the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to allow the evacuation of civilians before a ground attack on Rafah, which Israel describes as Hamas’s last stronghold. But the offensive is deeply controversial, as many of Israel’s allies want a ceasefire agreed and say conditions in areas to which civilians are told to move (such as tent camps campaign north of Rafah, far from urban centers and basic services) are terrible.
More than 35,000 people have already died and nearly 80,000 people have been injured in Gaza since the start of the Israeli offensive following the Hamas attack, which claimed 1,200 lives.
