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Top UN Court Holding Hearings on Rafah 05/16 06:06
The United Nations' top court opens two days of hearings on Thursday into a
request from South Africa to press Israel to halt its military operation in the
southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population has
sought shelter.
THE HAGUE (AP) -- The United Nations' top court opens two days of hearings
on Thursday into a request from South Africa to press Israel to halt its
military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half of
Gaza's population has sought shelter.
It is the fourth time South Africa has asked the International Court of
Justice for emergency measures since the nation launched proceedings alleging
that Israel's military action in its war with Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide.
According to the latest request, the previous preliminary orders by The
Hague-based court were not sufficient to address "a brutal military attack on
the sole remaining refuge for the people of Gaza."
Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last stronghold of the militant group,
brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major
operation there would be catastrophic for civilians.
South Africa has asked the court to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah; to
take measures to ensure unimpeded access for U.N. officials, humanitarian
organizations and journalists to the Gaza Strip; and to report back within one
week on how it is meeting these demands.
During hearings earlier this year, Israel strongly denied committing
genocide in Gaza and said it does all it can to spare civilians and is only
targeting Hamas militants. It says Hamas' tactic of embedding in civilian areas
makes it difficult to avoid civilian casualties.
In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death,
destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of
ordering an end to the military offensive that has laid waste to the
Palestinian enclave.
In a second order in March, the court said Israel must take measures to
improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land
crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies to enter.
Most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since
fighting began.
The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which
Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
Gaza's Health Ministry says over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the
war, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its count.
South Africa initiated proceedings in December 2023 and sees the legal
campaign as rooted in issues central to its identity. Its governing party, the
African National Congress, has long compared Israel's policies in Gaza and the
occupied West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white
minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to "homelands." Apartheid ended in
1994.
On Sunday, Egypt announced it plans to join the case. The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs said Israeli military actions "constitute a flagrant violation
of international law, humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention of
1949 regarding the protection of civilians during wartime."
Several countries have also indicated they plan to intervene, but so far
only Libya, Nicaragua and Colombia have filed formal requests to do so.
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