- Israel’s military action in Rafah continues despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering a halt to operations.
- The ICJ ruling also demands the immediate release of all hostages held by Palestinian militants and emphasises the need for Israel to avoid actions that could lead to the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population in Rafah.
- Ceasefire negotiations are underway in Paris.
Israel
bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, on Saturday, a day after the top UN
court ordered it to halt military operations in the southern city as efforts
get underway in Paris to seek a ceasefire in the war sparked by Hamas’s 7
October attack.
The
International Court of Justice (ICJ) also demanded the immediate release of all
hostages still held by Palestinian militants, hours after the Israeli military
announced troops had recovered the bodies of three more of the captives from
northern Gaza.
The
Hague-based court, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement
mechanisms, also ordered Israel to keep open the Rafah crossing between Egypt
and Gaza, which it closed earlier this month at the start of its assault on the
city.
Israel gave
no indication it was preparing to change course in Rafah, insisting that the
court had got it wrong.
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“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 spokesperson.
The
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, welcomed the
ICJ ruling on Rafah but criticised its decision to exclude the rest of war-torn
Gaza from the order.
‘Nothing left
here’
Hours after
the ICJ ruling, Israel carried out strikes on the Gaza Strip early Saturday
while clashes between the Israeli army and the armed wing of Hamas continued.
Palestinian
witnesses and AFP teams reported Israeli strikes 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, also met by AFP in the central Gaza Strip city.
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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 ordered
Israel to open the Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid and also called for the
“immediate and unconditional release” of the hostages held by Hamas
in Gaza.
The Gaza
war broke out after Hamas’s 7 October attack resulted in the deaths of more
than 1 170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli
official figures.
Militants
also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says
are dead.
Israel’s
retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35 800 people in Gaza, mostly women
and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The Israeli
military said the three hostages whose bodies were recovered in north Gaza on
Friday — Israeli hostage Chanan Yablonka, Brazilian-Israeli Michel Nisenbaum
and French-Mexican Orion Hernandez Radoux – were “murdered” during
the 7 October attack and their bodies taken to Gaza.
Paris meetings
The court
order comes ahead of separate meetings on the Gaza conflict in Paris between
the CIA chief and Israeli representatives on one side and French President
Emmanuel Macron and the foreign ministers of four key Arab states on the other.
Ceasefire
talks involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators ended shortly after Israel
launched the Rafah operation, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office
this week said the war cabinet had asked the Israeli delegation “to
continue negotiations for the return of the hostages”.
A Western
source close to the issue said CIA chief Bill Burns was expected to meet
Israeli representatives in Paris to relaunch negotiations.
Separately,
French President Emmanuel Macron received the prime minister of Qatar and the
Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers on Friday “to press for a
ceasefire”, according to Cairo.
The French
presidency said they held talks on the Gaza war and ways to set up a
Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The five
countries discussed “the effective implementation of the two-state
solution”, it added.
Washington
said top US diplomat Antony Blinken also spoke with Israeli war cabinet
minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the
Rafah border crossing as soon as possible.
‘End this
nightmare’
Israeli
ground troops started moving into Rafah in early May, defying global
opposition.
Troops took
over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, further
slowing sporadic deliveries of aid for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
But on
Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed in a call with his US
counterpart Joe Biden to allow UN aid through the other entry point into
southern Gaza, the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel, the White House said.
The US
military has also installed a temporary jetty on the Gaza coast to receive aid
by sea, which a UN spokesperson said had delivered 97 trucks of aid after
“a rocky start” a week ago.
The
security and humanitarian situation in the territory remains alarming, with a
risk of famine, hospitals out of service, and around 800 000 people, according
to the United Nations, having fled Rafah in the last two weeks.
UN
humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said the situation had reached “a
moment of clarity”.
“Aid
workers and UN staff must be able to carry out their jobs in safety,” he
posted on social media site X late Friday.
“At a
time when the people of Gaza are staring down famine… it is more critical
than ever to heed the calls made over the last seven months: Release the
hostages. Agree a ceasefire. End this nightmare.”
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