United States: Judges at the International Court of Justice have ruled Israel to stop its attacking on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and evacuate the territory on response to South Africa’s accusation of genocide against Israel, which cited “immense risk” to the Palestinian population.
With its ruling on Friday, the 15-judge panel sought to reduce the number of deaths and ease the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population for the third time this year. Although court orders are legally valid, there are no police to carry them out.
The president of the International Court of Justice, often known as the World Court, Nawaf Salam, read out a decision that stated that the requirements for a fresh emergency order had been reached and that the situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave was not adequately addressed by the interim measures the court had ordered in March.
Salam called the humanitarian situation in Rafah “disastrous” and demanded that Israel “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Last Monday, the lawyers for South Africa requested that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague impose emergency measures, arguing that Israel’s attacks on Rafah must cease in order to protect the Palestinian people.
Additionally, the ICJ has mandated that Israel submit a report to the court detailing its progress in implementing the measures that the organization has required within a month.
This month, Israel began its attack on the southern city of Rafah, driving out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from a city that had served as a haven for over half of the 2.3 million residents.
International organizations claim that the Israeli assault has severed the enclave’s supply and increased the risk of famine. Rafah, which lies on Gaza’s southern border, has also served as the primary entry point for supplies.
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