International Court of Justice orders Israel to halt its Rafah offensive

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The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, citing the “immense risks” of an assault that leaves hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians facing imminent threat of death.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swiftly signalled his support for the court’s ruling, which he called “binding.” The world court’s orders “go exactly” in the direction of Canada’s position, and “we expect everyone to follow them as a matter of international law,” he told reporters on Friday.

The court in The Hague, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, issued the order on Friday with the support of 13 of its 15 judges. Only the judges of Uganda and Israel opposed the order.

The court said Israel must comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention by immediately halting its Rafah offensive in the southern Gaza Strip, along with any other action in Rafah “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

By the same 13-2 vote, the court’s judges ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing, between Gaza and Egypt, to allow the unhindered supply of “urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.”

The court also ordered Israel to ensure “unimpeded access” to Gaza for any UN-mandated investigation of genocide allegations, and it required Israel to submit a report within 30 days on its compliance with the orders. It did not, however, order a complete ceasefire across Gaza, which had been requested by South Africa in its latest urgent application to the court this month.

While the world court’s orders are legally binding, the court does not have an enforcement mechanism, and countries such as Russia have simply ignored earlier rulings by the court.

Mr. Trudeau, speaking at a news conference in Truro, N.S., said the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is “horrific” and requires a major increase in aid. “The dangers of starvation and famine are real. We need to be helping on the ground. We need to get more aid in. The ICJ’s latest proposed measures go exactly in that direction.”

Mr. Trudeau’s comments on Friday were in sharp contrast to his response to the court’s initial ruling on Gaza in January, when his government declined to offer any comment on the specifics of the court orders.

On Friday, he also accused the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of throwing obstacles into the path of a two-state solution in which Israel would co-exist peacefully with a Palestinian state.

“That is what Canada has been working on for decades. … Unfortunately, the Netanyahu government is creating barriers and blockages to ever being able to create, or even imagine, that two-state solution. That is where we fundamentally disagree with the Netanyahu government even as we continue to support the rights of the State of Israel and also the aspirations of the Palestinian people.”

The orders issued on Friday are interim measures by the world court in response to the South African application, as part of a larger case in which South Africa alleges that Israel has breached the Genocide Convention, a 1948 treaty that Israel and 152 other countries have signed.

In its ruling, the court cited the “worsening conditions of life” faced by civilians in Rafah, including the displacement of about 800,000 civilians who have fled from Israel’s intensified bombing campaign.

It quoted UN officials saying that the risks have already started to materialize, with one of the last remaining hospitals in Rafah forced to shut down and UN relief workers losing access to their Rafah warehouse. The court said it was unconvinced that Israel’s evacuation efforts and other measures are sufficient to alleviate the huge risks posed by the military offensive.

In a separate section of their ruling, the judges reiterated their call for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. “The court finds it deeply troubling that many of these hostages remain in captivity,” the judges said. They could not include this call in their formal orders, however, because the court only has jurisdiction over states, not armed groups.

Rafah had been the main place of refuge for about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, until Israel launched its new assault this month. According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed across the territory since Israel launched its offensive last October. Israel says about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were seized by Hamas in the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that precipitated the Gaza offensive.

Independent analysts said the ruling on Friday gave South Africa nearly everything that it had requested in its application to the court. Although the ruling is unlikely to have any immediate impact on Israel’s military offensive, it could increase the diplomatic pressure for a ceasefire and could leave Israel further isolated on the world stage.

Several ICJ judges issued separate opinions on Friday, with some suggesting that the court order did not require a complete halt to Israel’s offensive. “It is not an unconditional obligation to halt the military operation,” said Aharon Barak, the Israeli appointee to the court. “It specifies that Israel must, in accordance with its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention, conduct its military offensive in a way that does not deprive the Palestinian civilian population of its essential means of existence.”

Most of the court’s judges, however, did not address this issue of interpretation, and at least one judge – South African judge Dire Tladi – flatly stated that the ruling required a full halt to the offensive.

Israel has repeatedly denounced South Africa’s court application, accusing it of acting on behalf of Hamas. “No power on earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza,” Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told journalists on Thursday.

On Friday, Israeli officials responded to the court ruling by saying that the genocide charge is “outrageous and morally repugnant.” They said Israel’s military actions were “defensive and just,” and they denied that the Rafah offensive would lead to the destruction of the Palestinian population “in whole or in part.”

Zane Dangor, director-general of South Africa’s Foreign Ministry, said his government welcomed the court ruling on Friday. “This order is ground-breaking as it is the first time an explicit mention is made for Israel to halt its military actions in any area of Gaza,” he said in a statement on social media.

In effect, the court is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and other countries must also comply with this order, he said, in a tacit reference to the U.S. role in providing weapons to Israel.

Balkees Jarrah, associate director of international justice at Human Rights Watch, said the ruling shows the gravity of the situation facing Palestinians in Gaza.

“Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and civilians there are facing famine – and yet the Israeli government continues to flout the World Court’s binding orders by obstructing the entry of life-saving aid and services,” she said in a statement.

“The ICJ’s decision opens up the possibility for relief, but only if governments use their leverage, including through arms embargoes and targeted sanctions, to press Israel to urgently enforce the court’s measures.”