Israel continues Gaza strikes despite UN court ruling
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Israeli forces have killed more than 40 people in new attacks in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said, the day after judges at the top United Nations court ordered Israel to halt its offensive on the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
Though Israel pressed on with its offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday, mediated negotiations between the two sides are due to restart next week “with active US involvement”, an official with knowledge of the matter said.
The decision on talks was taken after the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency met the head of the CIA and the prime minister of Qatar, said the source, declining to be identified.
A Hamas official later denied Israeli media reports that the talks would resume in Cairo on Tuesday, telling Reuters: “There is no date”.
The International Court of Justice, or World Court, has no means to enforce its emergency ruling in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide.
But the case was a stark sign of Israel’s global isolation over its campaign, particularly since it began its offensive against Rafah this month against the pleas of its closest ally, the United States.
“We take note of the order” given to Israel on Friday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X, formerly twitter. “ICJ [International Court of Justice] orders are binding on the Parties and they have to be fully and effectively implemented.”
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares demanded that Israel obey the ruling. Writing on X, Albares said the ICJ ruling was “mandatory” and demanded “a ceasefire, the release of hostages and humanitarian access.”
German vice chancellor Robert Habeck said the German government believes “that Israel must not carry out this attack, at least not in the way it did in the Gaza Strip before, bombing refugee camps and so on.”
“The famine, the suffering of the Palestinian population and the attacks in the Gaza Strip are – as we are now seeing in court – incompatible with international law.”
Israeli officials said on Saturday that the World Court’s order does not rule out all military action in the area.
More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, Gaza’s health ministry says. Israel began the offensive after Hamas-led militants attacked on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Further north in the strip, where the Israeli military says it is trying to prevent Hamas from re-establishing its hold, both sides reporting ground fighting while Palestinian medical workers reported Israeli airstrikes killed at least 17 people.
A total of 45 Palestinians were killed in the past day, according to local medical officials. They do not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties.
It is not just people on the move, trying to escape the fighting. Animals and birds were evacuated from Rafah Zoo and moved to makeshift shelters in the Khan Younis refugee camp.
In another development stormy seas have damaged the temporary pier set up last week by the United States to provide humanitarian supplies.
Eyewitnesses said the makeshift harbour is currently out of action, with workers repairing the damage at the scene.
Israeli television station N12 reported that parts of the pier had been swept to the coast near the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, 30 kilometres away.
The temporary harbour is serving as a hub for the delivery of desperately needed aid supplies as Gaza itself has no harbour deep enough for larger cargo vessels.
with DPA
Reuters
