UN Court Rules for Halt to Israel’s Rafah Combat Operations
Prime Minister Netanyahu has insisted that a full-scale assault in the city is necessary to achieving his wartime goal to eliminate Hamas.
The Netherlands-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) called on the Israeli government on Friday to immediately halt its military operations in the southern Gaza Strip territory of Rafah.
By a 13–2 vote, the top United Nations court ordered Israeli forces to halt “its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate.”
This ICJ ruling comes after the government of South Africa requested the court modify its January order for the Israeli government to take precautions to prevent harm to civilians amid its ongoing military operations in the Gaza Strip. The South African government had argued that the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip could constitute acts of genocide against the Palestinian people, and had sought an ICJ ordered ceasefire across the territory, which the international court declined in its January order.
In its Friday ruling, the majority at the Hague court concluded the latest Israeli operations in and around Rafah “may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
In a second 13–2 vote, the ICJ also called on the Israeli government to “maintain open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
In a third vote along the same margins, the ICJ called for Israel to ensure U.N. investigative teams have unimpeded access to enter the Gaza Strip “to investigate allegations of genocide” within the embattled territory.
In a fourth 13–2 vote, the ICJ also ordered the government of Israel to issue a report documenting its efforts to comply with the court’s other orders regarding the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Rafah Humanitarian Concerns Complicate Israeli Operations
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described Rafah as one of the last remaining strongholds of Hamas, the Israeli- and U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist group that led widespread attacks inside Israel on Oct. 7. Mr. Netanyahu has insisted that a full-scale assault in the city is necessary to achieving his wartime goal to eliminate Hamas.
