Delegates attend a ruling on South Africa's request to order a halt to Israel's Rafah offensive24 May 2024, 20:46 Israeli ministers dismissed Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to cease its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, vowing to continue fighting to free its hostages and defeat Hamas.
“Israel is acting based on its right to defend its territory and its citizens, consistent with its moral values and in compliance with international law,” it said in a statement. Outside Israel, there has been shock at the harrowing television images of the suffering in the ruins of Gaza, where aid agencies, struggling to get enough emergency supplies in, report a growing humanitarian crisis.
“I think that we have women, young women, we have men, we have elderly individuals that have been take hostage. It makes no sense for country that’s trying to defend and protect its people to not get them back home,” he said.However, the immediate practical impact on Israeli policy is likely to be limited, beyond reinforcing a defiant national mood already stoked by the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
The case before the ICJ was brought by South Africa on the basis that by killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious mental and bodily harm and creating conditions of life “calculated to bring about their physical destruction”, Israel is committing genocide against them. Israeli forces have been massed at the city’s edges for weeks ahead of a long announced operation to destroy the four remaining Hamas battalions the army says are based there.