In a hearing at The Hague’s Peace Palace, South Africa’s legal team argued that Israel’s offensive poses an “extreme risk” to humanitarian supplies and basic services, to the Palestinian medical system and to “the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group.” On Friday, Israel will respond. (International Court of Justice)
South Africa on Thursday urged the International Court of Justice to order Israel to halt its Rafah offensive and protect civilians in Gaza.
In a hearing at The Hague’s Peace Palace, South Africa’s legal team argued that Israel’s offensive poses an “extreme risk” to humanitarian supplies and basic services, to the Palestinian medical system and to “the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group.” On Friday, Israel will respond.
South Africa brought a case against Israel late last year, accusing the country of “genocidal acts” and asking the court to issue “provisional measures” to stem the violence. Israel has rejected the charges.
In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to do more to prevent the killing of civilians in Gaza but did not call for a cease-fire. This month, South Africa returned to the court to ask for additional measures, citing developments in Rafah.
Roughly 600,000 people have fled Rafah since May 6, including about 150,000 people in the past 48 hours, according to the U.N.
The city’s population had swelled from about 275,000 to well over 1 million during the course of the war and aid groups say conditions for civilians there are increasingly dire.
“The court will be asking whether the situation has changed since its last round of orders,” said Juliette McIntyre, a law lecturer at the University of South Australia who specializes in international courts and tribunals.
“It is possible that the ground offensive in Rafah will also be considered a new development that has not been sufficiently addressed by the earlier orders, even though the earlier orders are reasonably broad,” she said.
McIntyre said it was unlikely that the ICJ would dismiss the call for additional measures altogether.
“The court remains unable to order Hamas to cease-fire, and will be cognizant of this imbalance,” she said. “But they might order Israel … to do what they can to achieve a cease-fire. Or they may go further and order a cease-fire directly.”
The decision, when it comes, will not be a ruling on whether Israel has, as South Africa alleges, committed genocide. Instead, provisional measures aim to prevent a situation from getting worse while the proceedings play out, potentially over years.
After this week’s hearings, the court will likely take some time to deliberate before making a decision — though the exact timeline remains unclear.
The ICJ was established after World War II to settle disputes between countries and is the main judicial body of the United Nations.
Though its decisions are legally binding, they are hard to enforce.
