WeeklySA_AdminDIRECTIVE: World awaits immediate halt of military operations in Rafah to ease suffering…
By Own Correspondents
Responding to the International Court of Justice’s ruling today, which ordered Israel to immediately halt military operations in the governorate of Rafah, the Amnesty International said it was time for Israel and all states to act in line with their obligations in the Genocide Convention
The order follows South Africa’s application to the ICC for additional provisional measures in its genocide case. The court issued that decision by 13 votes in favour to two against. The ICJ ordered Israel to submit a report within one month on steps taken to implement these provisional measures.
Reading the new provisional measures in an open session at the court in The Hague, ICJ Justice Nawaf Salam announced that Israel must abide by its obligations under the Genocide Convention to “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governate which may inflict upon the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that would bring about its physical destruction in whole and in part”.
The new provisional measures came in response to South Africa’s request made on May 10 related to its initial accusations in December, that Israel is violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention during the war in Gaza, which broke out after Hamas-led attacks on Israel in October that killed more than 1200 people and left another 250 taken hostage. Israel’s military response has, to date, killed nearly 36 000 Palestinians and caused widespread destruction and a looming famine in the besieged and bombarded enclave.
The court also noted that Israel’s evacuation orders for Rafah residents had led more than 800 000 people to flee to places like the coastal area of Al Mawasi, which lacked the basic essentials and services to accommodate them.
Since taking up South Africa’s case in January, the ICJ had already issued provisional measures in January and March by which Israel must, among other things, take all steps to ensure sufficient humanitarian aid enters Gaza. However, UN agencies are reporting that scant aid is currently entering Gaza.
In a statement, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “With this order the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the UN’s principal court – has made it crystal clear: the Israeli authorities must completely halt military operations in Rafah, as any ongoing military action could constitute an underlying act of genocide.
“Unequivocally, the ground incursion and the associated mass forced displacement it has caused, pose further irreparable risk to the rights of the Palestinian people protected under the Genocide Convention and further threaten their physical destruction in whole or in part.
“It is nearly four months since the ICJ first indicated provisional measures in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. In that time the humanitarian situation for Palestinians has grown exponentially worse with 35 000 Palestinians killed, mounting evidence of unlawful attacks on civilians and the UN declaring a famine amid a continuing woeful shortage in humanitarian aid.
“Despite these facts, Israeli authorities went ahead with plans for a ground operation in Rafah, ignoring repeated warnings about the catastrophic impact it would have for Palestinian civilians – most of whom have been forcibly displaced multiple times already- as well as for Gaza’s entire humanitarian aid system. The ground incursion into eastern Rafah has already led to the mass forced displacement of over 800 000 Palestinians and to the shutdown of the governorate’s largest hospital, Abu Yousef al-Najjar.
“Significantly, the Court exposed the charade of “safe zones” that Israeli authorities have been using to put a veneer of legality on the operations. The areas to which Israel has forced people to “evacuate”, especially al-Mawasi, are desperately unequipped to host them and lack the most basic standards of safe and dignified living conditions, including necessary amounts of water, sanitation, food, medicine and shelter. Israel’s actions, including the closure of the Rafah border crossing on 7 May, show that far from protecting civilians in Gaza its forces have repeatedly pursued cruel and inhumane policies and shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinians facing a real risk of genocide.
“The court has spoken and it is time for Israel and all states to act in line with their obligations in the Genocide Convention. Israel must immediately halt its ground operations in Rafah – and indeed halt military operations in all of Gaza – and ensure unfettered access for humanitarian aid and services.
The court also ordered Israel to allow unimpeded access for fact-finding missions, UN commissions of inquiry, investigators and journalists to preserve evidence and record conditions on the ground in Gaza, as well as to independently and impartially investigate possible violations of the Genocide Convention. – Additional information sourced from UN News
