The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to cease its military operation in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, in a judgment handed down Friday in response to a case brought by South Africa.
Israel is expected to ignore the ruling, as it views the operation in Rafah as essential to the defeat of the Hamas terrorist organization.
The ICJ said Israel “must immediately halt its military operation” in Rafah. It also said that Israel had to preserve evidence relevant to alleged “genocide,” and provide “unimpeded access” to Gaza for fact-finding missions and investigations.
The ICJ also said that it was “not convinced that the evacuation effort and related measures” in Rafah were sufficient.
It also said that it was concerned that many of the Israel hostages taken on October 7 remained in captivity, and called for their “immediate and unconditional release.”
The ICJ also ordered that the Rafah border crossing be opened — though it is closed on the Egyptian side, not on the Gaza side that has been controlled by Israel since early May.
The court’s decision was 13-2, with ICJ Vice President Julia Sebutinde of Uganda once again leading the dissent.
The judgment was read by ICJ President Nawaf Salam, a judge from Lebanon, a country dominated by the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets and missiles at Israel since early October.
Today's #ICJ order if Israel should withdraw from Rafah & Gaza, will be delivered by Presiding judge Nawaf Salam of Lebanon.
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) May 24, 2024
Here he is, in 2016, as Lebanon's Ambassador to UN, accusing Israel of apartheid, war crimes & terror.
And we are supposed to be believe he is impartial? pic.twitter.com/1cdgbvzKVl
Salam, reading the judgment, said that the situation in Gaza had changed since its previous opinion, in which it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. Therefore, he said, the court would modify its earlier rulings on the case.
On Thursday, Israel said that it would ignore any ICJ ruling against the operation in Rafah, telling Breitbart News at a press briefing: “No power on earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza. We will destroy Hamas. We will return peace and security to the people of Israel and to the people of Gaza. We cannot go on with a genocidal terrorist regime on our southern border.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
