Israel disregards UN court’s order to stop offensive; strikes Rafah day after order

Rafah: A day after the highest UN court ordered Israel to suspend military operations in the southern city, Israel attacked the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, as talks to establish a truce in the war began in Paris.

Shortly after the Israeli military declared that it had found the bodies of three additional captives from northern Gaza, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) also ordered the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza.

Israel was also directed by the Hague-based court to maintain open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which it had closed earlier this month when it began its attack on the city. The court's rulings are legally binding but do not have direct enforcement procedures, AFP reported.

Israel, which insisted that the court had got it wrong, did not indicate that it was getting ready to reverse direction in Rafah.

“Israel has not and will not carry out military operations in the Rafah area that create living conditions that could cause the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part,” National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a joint statement with Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman.

Israel launched strikes on the Gaza Strip early on Saturday, hours after the International Court of Justice's verdict, as clashes between the Israeli army and Hamas' armed wing persisted.

Israeli strikes were reported by Palestinian witnesses and AFP crews in Rafah and the central city of Deir Al-Balah.

“We hope that the court’s decision will put pressure on Israel to end this war of extermination, because there is nothing left here,” said Oum Mohammad Al-Ashqa, a Palestinian woman from Gaza City displaced to Deir Al-Balah by the war.

“But Israel is a state that considers itself above the law. Therefore, I do not believe that the shooting or the war will stop other than by force,” said Mohammed Saleh.

In its keenly awaited ruling, the ICJ said Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

It demanded that Israel allow humanitarian aid to pass via the Rafah crossing and called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the captives held by Hamas in Gaza. More than 1,170 people were killed in Hamas's October 7 strike, which sparked the Gaza conflict, according to an AFP count based on Israeli government tally.

According to the health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 35,800 individuals in Gaza, the majority of them being women and children.