The International Court of Justice: “Israel immediately stops the offensive against Rafah”

The Court of Justice also argued that there is "no evidence" of the assurances provided by the Government of Israel regarding the safety of civilians and guaranteed access to humanitarian convoys

ROME – Israel must immediately stop its offensive against Rafah: this is what the International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in The Hague, orders, accepting the request presented by the South African authorities. As agreed international press sources report, the 15 judges of the United Nations tribunal voted unanimously, recalling that since the beginning of the attack on the city in the south of the Gaza Strip as many as 800 thousand people have had to leave homes or camps for displaced people.
Rafah, in fact, close to the border with Egypt, had now welcomed over 80% of the population of the Strip since Israel launched the operation against the Palestinian enclave on 7 October, in response to the offensive by Hamas fighters which caused the death of around 1200 people.

The Court of Justice also argued that “there is no evidence” of the reassurances provided by the Israeli government regarding the safety of civilians and guaranteed access to humanitarian convoys. The judges thus urged Tel Aviv not only to put an end to the attack by withdrawing its troops, but also to reopen all border crossings to allow the entry of goods and humanitarian aid “without restrictions”.

Finally, the court demands that Israel “take effective measures to guarantee unhindered access to the Gaza Strip to any commission, mission or investigative body mandated by the United Nations, in order to investigate allegations of genocide”that South Africa committed against Israel. This, the same sources still report, must happen so that observers and investigators can collect information and evidence of any war crimes committed, before they can be lost.
The ICJ finally gives the Tel Aviv authorities one month of time to produce documentsthat demonstrate the implementation of these precautionary measures, as well as those previously imposed by the Court and which, as the judges clarified, “Israel has not observed”.
This is the third package of measures that the International Court of Justice has applied to the state of Israel since January, after the complaint of “genocide” presented by South Africa.
From 7 October to today, the Gaza authorities estimate that over 35 thousand Palestinians have died and almost 80 thousand were injured in the conflict.
Last week Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, expressed his intention to issue the international arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three top Hamas leaders, including leader Yahya Sinwar.