The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is likely to deliver a ruling on emergency measures to cease military operations in Gaza where nearly 36000 innocent civilians have lost their lives and more than 80000 are injured.
According to the UN 50 percent of the killed Gazans are women and children. This court will give this ruling in response to the request of South Africa (SA). That cited Israel’s offensive in Rafah aims to destroy the foundations of Palestinians. Can this expected ruling stop Israel from this war in Gaza?
Earlier, the ICJ in an interim order asked Israel to comply with the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, but Israel bulldozed it and continued killing innocent Palestinians. A UN resolution demanded Israel stop its offensive against Gazans, but didn’t bother and continued and till today has killed more than 35000 innocent civilians. As far as this new expected ruling of the ICJ is concerned, the international media has reported Israel defending its military operations in Rafah as necessary to root out Hamas. It also reported Israel saying, “No power on earth could stop Israel from going after Hamas in Gaza.”
Now this is what the new ICJ ruling will expectedly face. The ICJ has no mechanism to get its rulings enforced, but hopefully, it will have some impact on Israel on the international front and may affect it in the UN Security Council. The rulings of the ICJ are legally binding but are difficult to enforce, especially when major world powers like the United States support Israel in its offensive in Gaza. However. in a hearing last week at the Hague, the SA argued that Israel’s offensive in Rafah and the closure of key border crossings aim to destroy the foundations of Palestinian life.
The SA launched a case against Israel in January 2024 in the ICJ, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in violation of the UN Convention. The ICJ issued an order in January for Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and preserve evidence related to genocidal crimes. It also called for urgent measures to provide basic services to Palestinians, the majority of whom are facing hunger. According to the latest reports, nearly 1 million Palestinians have been displaced.
The international aid agencies say that an Israeli invasion in Rafah would prove extremely catastrophic for civilians because many of the Gazans took shelter there earlier in this war. According to the latest reports of the World Health Organization (WHO) Gaza hospitals have become focal points of war in Gaza.
The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has been evacuated and is now out of service. Additionally, the al-Awda Hospital in nearby Jabalya was invaded after being under siege and was forcibly evacuated. It has been reported that access to healthcare across Gaza is almost lost. Many hospitals lack fuel and medicines due to the continued closure of the Rafah crossing. The Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was reported expressing this.
On May 6, Israel struck Rafah where over one million Palestinians were keeping shelter. The conflict has sparked increased regional tensions across the Middle East. Aid officials watched nearly half of Gaza’s population displaced on the force in just over two weeks, with uprooted families struggling to find any open patch of land to settle on.
Humanitarian groups are struggling to determine how and where to provide aid to the starving, injured, and sick individuals Edem Wosornu of the UN humanitarian agency reportedly stated, “We are running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza. We can describe it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on Earth. It is all of these, and worse.”
However, in the ongoing situation in Gaza, a success that Gazans achieved is that some European countries announced recognition of Palestine as a state. The Spanish, Irish, and Norwegian governments announced that they would recognize a Palestinian state as there would be no peace in the Middle East without it. Israel denounced this move and in response, ordered the immediate recall of the Israeli ambassadors to these countries.
More than 140 countries around the world recognize Palestine as a state. In Europe, a few countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Sweden, have formally recognized Palestine. China, India, Malaysia, and Russia recognized Palestinians in 1988. Mexico is the latest country to recognize a Palestinian state in the middle of 2023. Sweden in 2014, Thailand in 2012, and Brazil in 2010 also recognized it as a state. Despite many nations around the world having recognized Palestine, its rights are not being acknowledged.
This raises questions for champions of human rights who are supporting Israel in its offensive against Gazans. Now responding to the European countries’ recognition, the US was reported saying that recognizing Palestinians as a state was premature and must be the result of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
(By Rana Kashif)
