The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will announce its decision on Friday on South Africa’s request for additional measures against Israel, including to halt its military operation in Rafah.
The Israeli government has said no power will stop it from its military onslaught in the Gaza Strip, ahead of the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday on additional provisional measures in the ongoing case of genocide.
“No power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza,” Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman said in a press briefing on Thursday when asked whether Israel would comply with a possible ICJ ruling to halt its ground offensive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Hyman vowed: “We will destroy Hamas.”
The Hague-based court said it will announce its decision on Friday.
“A public sitting will take place at 3 p.m. at the Peace Palace in The Hague, during which Judge Nawaf Salam, President of the Court, will read out the Court’s Order,” the court said in a statement on Thursday.
Last week, the ICJ held a two-day hearing for additional provisional measures against Israel requested by South Africa.
‘Allow Investigators In’
South Africa requested that the court urge Israel to immediately cease its military offensive against Rafah, withdraw its forces, and ensure unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.
Additionally, South Africa asked the court to order Israel to allow UN officials, humanitarian organizations, journalists, and investigators to enter the enclave without hindrance.
It ended with the court’s request from Israel to provide information about the existing humanitarian conditions in the designated evacuation zones in the Gaza Strip.
The Anadolu news agency, citing the Israeli Hayom newspaper, reported that Israeli legal experts assess a high probability that the ICJ will issue injunctions on Friday
The paper cited an Israeli diplomatic source who said the court could either order a cessation of Israeli military operations in Rafah or seek a halt to the Gaza war through court injunctions.
If the court ordered a halt to the Gaza war, it would be “the most severe scenario that Israel had feared since the initial Hague hearings in January,” the newspaper reportedly said.
“Such orders could significantly impede Israel’s ability to continue its military mission in Gaza, though Israel has repeatedly emphasized it is not bound by the court’s rulings,” it added.
‘Hell on Earth’
Israel is worried that injunctions from the ICJ could precipitate a similar resolution by the UN Security Council, where Israel would again require a US veto to block it, the newspaper said, according to Anadolu.
“Israeli officials are bracing for that possibility in the coming days,” it added.
Israel launched a ground offensive on May 6 in Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians have sheltered from Tel Aviv’s war on the enclave.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that more than 800,000 people have already fled the city since the start of the Israeli assault.
The director of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Operations and Advocacy Division, Edem Wosornu, said this week: “We are running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza.”
“We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on earth. It is all of these, and worse,” she emphasized.
On Monday the International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that he had filed arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” committed on Palestinian territory “from at least 8 October 2023.” He also applied for arrest warrants against three senior Hamas leaders.
Over 35,000 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 35,800 Palestinians have been killed, and 80,011 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, Anadolu)