International Court of Justice orders Israel to “immediately” stop Rafah military offensive

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the United Nations (UN), ordered Israel on Friday May 24 to stop ” immediately ” its military offensive in Rafah. The Court, which sits in The Hague, also requests the judgment of “ any other action carried out in the governorate of Rafah which would be likely to inflict on the group of Palestinians in Gaza conditions of existence capable of bringing about its physical or partial destruction”. The orders of the ICJ, which decides disputes between states, are legally binding, but it has no way of enforcing them.

The court also ordered Israel to keep the Rafah crossing open to allow access ” without restriction “ to humanitarian aid. Finally, the court called for the immediate release of people taken hostage by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack against Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will bring together several ministers from his government at 5 p.m. local time (4 p.m. in Paris) in a conference call to “consultation” about this decision, his office announced.

South Africa had seized the ICJ and wanted the latter to order Israel to immediately cease all its military operations and to facilitate access to humanitarian aid.

“Horrible level”

Pretoria told the ICJ last week that “the genocide” committed by Israel had reached a “terrible level”evoking in particular mass graves, acts of torture and a blockage of humanitarian aid.

Israel had affirmed for its part that an imposed ceasefire would allow Hamas fighters to regroup and would make it impossible to release hostages taken during the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023.

It will take months, if not years, for the court to rule on the merits of the case brought by Pretoria – which accuses Israel of “genocide” in Gaza – but in the meantime it can order urgent measures.

This case is “completely disconnected” of reality and is a “caricature” of the United Nations Convention on Genocide that Israel is accused of having violated, retorted the Jewish state. “Calling something a genocide, over and over again, does not make it genocide. Repeating a lie doesn’t make it true.”Gilad Noam, deputy attorney general for international affairs for Israel, told the court.

A first prescription in January

The court, seized at the end of December by South Africa, ordered Israel in January to do everything in its power to prevent any act of genocide and allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip. from Gaza.

But she did not go so far as to order a cease-fire. However, for Pretoria, the evolution of the situation on the ground – particularly in Rafah – required a new order from the ICJ.

This decision comes days after the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and Israel.