The Hague (Web Desk/Agencies): The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday ordered Israel to ‘immediately’ halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Reading out a ruling by the International Court of Justice or World Court, the body's president Nawaf Salam said provisional measures ordered by the court in March did not fully address the situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave now, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order.
"Israel must immediately halt its military offensive" in Rafah, he said.
The court also ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid and said it must provide access to the besieged enclave for investigators and report back on its progress within one month.
The order was adopted by the panel of 15 judges from around the world in a 13-2 vote, opposed only by judges from Uganda and Israel itself.
The court backed a South African request to order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, a week after Pretoria called for the measure in a case accusing Israel of genocide.
The ICJ is the highest UN body for hearing disputes between states. Its rulings are final and binding but have been ignored in the past. The court has no enforcement powers.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed the case's accusations of genocide as baseless, arguing in court that its operations in Gaza are self-defence and targeted at Hamas fighters who attacked Israel on October 7. An Israeli government spokesman said on the eve of Friday's decision that "no power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza."
Israel launched its assault on the southern city of Rafah this month, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee a city that had become a refuge to around half of the population's 2.3 million people. Rafah, on Gaza's southern edge, has also been the main route in for aid, and international organisations say the Israeli operation has cut off the enclave and raised the risk of famine.
Meanwhile, South Africa has welcomed the ICJ’s order and urged UN member states to back it, Al Jazeera reported.
“I believe it’s a much stronger, in terms of wording, set of provisional measures, very clear call for a cessation,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told public broadcaster SABC.