World court opens hearings on request to halt Rafah incursion

More than 600,000 people have fled Rafah since Israeli military operations intensified in the southern Gazan governate in early May. © UNRWA

16 May 2024 - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began public hearings on Thursday stemming from South Africa’s recent request for emergency provisional measures to immediately halt Israeli operations under way in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than one million Palestinians were sheltering during the seven-month-long war in the besieged enclave.

Linked to South Africa’s ongoing case accusing Israel of violating its obligations to the Genocide Convention, the new request, filed on 10 May, asked the ICJ’s 15 judges to order Israel to “immediately withdraw and cease its military operations in the Rafah governate” and open up the enclave to international aid workers and journalists.

South Africa delivered its arguments on Thursday afternoon, and Israel is expected to respond at public hearings on Friday at The Hague-based ICJ, which was established by the UN Charter as the principal judicial organ of the UN.

You can read South Africa’s current full request here and watch Thursday’s proceedings at the ICJ’s Peace Palace in the Netherlands below:

New request calls for ‘unimpeded’ access to Gaza

Amid a looming famine and deeper deadly Israeli incursions into Gaza, the urgent request has asked the court to order Israel to immediately “ensure and facilitate unimpeded access” to the enclave for UN and other aid officials, fact-finding missions, investigators and journalists.

That measure was requested to allow those officials and reporters “to assess and record conditions on the ground in Gaza and enable the effective preservation and retention of evidence”, with Israel ensuring “its military does not act to prevent such access”, according to South Africa’s application.

South Africa also requested the court to require Israel to submit, within one week of the order, a report on steps taken to implement these new provisional measures. 

Israel’s declared ‘safe zones’ in Gaza are anything but safe

Among a bevy of lawyers and experts presenting South Africa’s arguments on Thursday for its newest request, Vaughn Lowe said “the key point today is that Israel’s declared aim of wiping Gaza from the map is about to be realised.”

“Evidence of appalling crimes and atrocities is literally being destroyed and bulldozed, in effect wiping the slate clean for those who’ve committed these crimes and making a mockery of justice,” he said.

Max du Plessis, a lawyer for South Africa, said Israel’s declared “safe zones” are anything but safe.

“There is nothing humanitarian about these humanitarian zones,” he said. “Israel’s genocide of Palestinians continues through military attacks and man-made starvation.”

Special Rapporteur urged Israel to immediately release all healthcare workers arbitrarily detained in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, - - UN News