The United Nations’ top court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its controversial military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, further increasing international pressure on Israel over its war against Hamas,
CNN reports.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, made the ruling as part of the ongoing genocide case brought by South Africa.
“Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” said Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice.
Rulings by the court are final and binding, but the ICJ doesn’t have a mechanism to enforce them, and they have been ignored in the past.
The development comes as Israel faces mounting international and domestic pressure to end the war in Gaza.
This week, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), a separate court in The Hague, sought arrest warrants for Hamas leaders as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
