• ICJ has ruled that “Israel must immediately halt its military offensive.”
• Israel must allow aid and officials into Gaza to investigate the allegations of Genocide.
The ICJ has effectively ruled that Israel is not doing enough to minimise casualties or death in Gaza whilst they continue their all-out assault on finding and ridding themselves of Hamas. The ICJ also now recognise that the situation in Gaza – specifically Rafah is worsening where 1.7 million people are on the brink of famine with disease already rife throughout the oppressed population, owing to the lack of aid and support being allowed in.
Should Netanyahu accept the decision of the ICJ he must also agree to allow any officials – partied with the UN – unfettered access across the entire Gaza Strip to gather information and evidence to either support or negate South Africa’s original claim of genocide.
In the Hague, the judges – by a vote of thirteen votes to two across all measures proposed by South Africa – have ruled that the ICJ:
“(1) Reaffirms the provisional measures indicated in its Orders of 26 January 2024 and 28 March 2024, which should be immediately and effectively implemented;”
“(2) Indicates the following provisional measures:
The State of Israel shall, in conformity with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and in view of the worsening conditions of life faced by civilians in the Rafah Governorate:”
“(a) Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;”
“(b) Maintain open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance;”
“(c) Take effective measures to ensure the unimpeded access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide;”
“(3) Decides that the State of Israel shall submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order, within one month.”
South Africa’s support of Palestine and persistence in trying to stop what they have described as “Israel’s indiscriminate killing of Palestinians” has been steadfast. Each time they have gone back to the ICJ they have been able to ebb away at Israel’s and Netanyahu’s victimhood.
On this visit, South Africa approached the ICJ with a firmer stance by producing even more robust evidence including irrefutable video evidence, challenging Israel’s narrative of adhering to the provisional measures that had been in place since 26th January 2024 through now, whilst discussing and proposing the need to have additional measures in place.
The judges largely agreed with all the additional measures – but stopped short of voting for Israel’s unconditional withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, whilst furnishing them with a further month to then report back to the ICJ and South Africa.
Following on from the ICJ ruling, there has yet to be any reaction from Israel’s partners in the West. Itamar Ben-Gvir has said that the only reply to the ICJ ruling is to continue its assault on Rafah, whilst former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett responded by claiming the ICJ had just shown terror organisations how to “get away with murder”.
This is sure to be another seismic blow to Netanyahu’s regime; after Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan QC planned to seek an ICC warrant for his arrest earlier this week; with splits and possible factions forming in his government with his most ardent supporters turning against Netanyahu and his popularity plummeting amongst his voters – showing that if an election were held today, the Likud party would secure only around a third of the seats in the Knesset.
At the time of writing, almost 36,000 confirmed deaths have been reported while the number of injured has risen to above 80,000. The UN also reports that around 800,000 displaced people have been evacuated from Rafah, despite being under bombardment from the IDF.
