The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its practices military offensive against Rafah, in southern Gaza, and any other action that could lead to the total or partial destruction of Palestinians as a group. This is a new urgent measure taken in view of the deterioration of the “catastrophic humanitarian situation” already affecting the population, according to the decision. The judges also demand that Israel keep the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt, open so that humanitarian aid can enter. Finally, they ask Benjamin Netanyahu's government to grant access to Gaza to the commissions of inquiry sent by the UN to investigate the genocide allegations made in the lawsuit filed by South Africa last December. Israel must notify the court within one month of the application of all these measures, which, however, avoids demanding a complete end to the invasion of Gaza.

According to the court, the situation in Rafah, with the intensification of the bombing and forced evacuation orders, is “exceptionally serious” and the humanitarian situation “disastrous”. For example, during the public reading of the decision, TIJ President Nawaf Salam recalled that at least 800,000 people – the vast majority of the 1.2 million entering the zone – have been killed since the recent start of the military operation in Rafah. They had to leave that city in the south of the enclaveand that “the evacuation and other measures” Israel has implemented to ensure the safety of civilians “are not sufficient and pose an immediate risk to the population.” The judges have even stated that they have received no “evidence” that the Israeli government is providing the displaced people with security and guarantees of access to decent humanitarian conditions.

This Friday's decision establishes emergency and far-reaching precautionary measures to protect Palestinians seeking refuge in Rafah, the last area that Israel still does not fully control. The ICJ, the UN body that settles conflicts between states, demands a halt to the offensive or any other action against “the Palestinians as a group” that could impose “vital conditions leading in whole or in part to their physical destruction.” Salam reminded that Israel must allow “the accusations of genocide” by South Africa, which denounced the offensive on Gaza in court last December, to be investigated. The international genocide convention defines it as the “systematic elimination of a human group for reasons of race, ethnicity, religion or nationality” and the court must decide whether Israel has violated this convention.

Hours later, Netanyahu's office again rejected allegations of genocide in South Africa, calling them “false, outrageous and abhorrent.” Netanyahu issued a statement defending that the Rafah campaign “has not led and will not lead to the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population.” For its part, the government of South Africa has described the International Court of Justice order as “groundbreaking as it is the first to explicitly require Israel to halt its military action in any area of Gaza.”

It is the third time that the judges have ruled in this case since January last year. South Africa will press charges against Israel for possible 'genocidal acts' in the Gaza Strip. Pretoria has argued that this could be the court's “last chance” to ensure the survival of Gaza residents.

The reliefs ordered by the International Court of Justice this Friday constitute an emergency following the intensified bombing by Israel – which does not concede the court's jurisdiction to impose decisions on the country – in Rafah. The content of the case (whether or not genocide is being committed in Gaza) will not be discussed for the time being. In this final phase, which may take several years to resolve, it must be substantiated whether, as South Africa claims, this crime took place, of which the country denounces the worst crime due to the violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (1948). ) signed by both countries.

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Pretoria argues that Israel's self-defense against Hamas attacks cannot translate into uncontrolled violence against civilians. Since the Israeli offensive began, starting with the Hamas attacks on October 7, the death toll in Gaza has reached 35,800 people, according to the Gaza Strip's Ministry of Health, controlled by the Islamist movement.

According to Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, one of South Africa's delegates to the ICJ, The Israeli military campaign has not only caused hunger and destroyed homes and infrastructure. “Israel's intention was to destroy the lives of Palestinians and Rafah is the last stop,” he claims. When the court heard the case a few months ago, it already concluded that there was a risk of irreparable damage to the Palestinians' right to protection against genocide. For this reason, on January 26, he first demanded that Israel take the necessary measures to prevent such acts and to enable the delivery of essential humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. On March 28, in a second round of extended precautionary measures, he again demanded that Netanyahu's government avoid famine in the Gaza Strip, meet the needs of the population and not violate their rights.

The Israeli government responds that it only launched its attack after Hamas entered its territory on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage, according to its count. Netanyahu, by contrast, rejects any accusation of genocide, and one of his spokesmen, Avi Hyman, noted Thursday that “no power on earth will prevent Israel from protecting its citizens and prosecuting Hamas in Gaza.”

The ICJ lacks coercive power, but its order hinders Israel's ability to continue business as usual in Gaza. This institution is the highest judicial body of the UN and there is also the possibility that the Security Council, the monitoring body, will judge this war again. He already did this last March by calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, after the United States did not veto the initiative. They also called for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages held by Hamas. It was the first time since the war began in October that the Council had made an appeal of this nature. Currently, the diplomatic pressure on Israel to end hostilities is even greater. Spain, Ireland and Norway have announced that they will recognize the Palestinian state next week. Although Palestine is only an observer state within the United Nations, it is already recognized by at least 140 countries in the world.

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