Israel’s latest military offence into Rafah is the “last step in the destruction of [all] Gaza” and the only order that can save Palestinians is a ceasefire, SA has told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
SA made oral arguments at the court on Thursday in its case against Israel over alleged contraventions of the Genocide Convention. This is the second time SA has appeared in the court against Israel after obtaining preliminary orders in January that Israel scale down its operations in Gaza.
SA filed an urgent application to the ICJ last week after the latest offensive into Rafah, which SA described as the “last refuge” for all Palestinian people.
The case started after an attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7 2023. A reported 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 kidnapped. Israel responded with an assault on Gaza, killing more than 30,000 people by March, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel maintains it is “making every effort to limit harm to the noninvolved”. SA says Israel violated the Genocide Convention to which both countries are signatories.
In January, the majority of the ICJ found SA’s claims “plausible” that the Palestinian people’s rights under the Genocide Convention are under “imminent” threat. The court ordered Israel to take effective measures to limit violence and allow for humanitarian aid. Since January, SA has repeatedly obtained further orders from the ICJ but Israel keeps ignoring these, it argues.
Last centre
Israel’s latest military offensive into Rafah prompted SA to urgently request the court’s intervention again. “Rafah is the last population centre in Gaza that has not been substantially destroyed by Israel,” SA said in court papers.
In his opening address, SA’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, told the court Israel was escalating its attacks and its alleged “genocide has continued apace and has just reached a new and horrific stage”.
Vaughan Lowe, an expert in international law, said the Rafah operations are “part of the end game” in which “Gaza is utterly destroyed”. Lowe dismissed Israel’s claim it has the right to self-defence. Self-defence “does not give a state licence to use unlimited violence,” he said, adding “nothing can ever justify genocide”.
Israel, as an “occupying state”, has — under the authority of the ICJ’s previous judgments — “no right to self-defence” against the state it is occupying, Lowe said.
John Dugard, a senior advocate and world-renowned expert in international law, pointed out that “new facts” allow the court to issue new orders or amend its previous orders. “A ceasefire is needed for the sake of humanity,” he said. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians were crammed into small areas, after being ordered by Israel to flee, and yet the country still targeted those areas.
Food supplies
Advocate Max du Plessis argued that Israel’s “sealing off entry and exit” at the last crossings in Rafah led to disruption of aid to Palestinians. With attacks on hospitals, aid vehicles and even children, it leads to “only one inference ... [and that is] genocidal intent”.
The UN recently reported that no supplies were getting into Gaza, a direct defiance by Israel of the court’s earlier orders to allow such unhindered aid, Du Plessis said.
Advocate Adila Hassim noted that the numbers of dead “defy ... comprehension”, with a possible 35,000 people killed and 10,000 more missing. “The majority are women and children,” she said. “These apocalyptic conditions are set to worsen.”
She pointed to attacks on hospitals and the discovery of mass graves with the bodies of elderly people and children. Many were handcuffed, she said.
SA therefore seeks the “only order” that will protect Palestinians, which is an “explicit order that Israel cease its military activity ... throughout Gaza”.
Senior Irish advocate Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh said “the court has the power to [take action] and our shared humanity compels it”.
The court’s reluctance to previously order a ceasefire had “cynically been used by Israel”. Due to the new facts SA had presented, the court should order Israel to cease its operations to allow its previous orders to take effect.
Ní Ghrálaigh said Palestinians were “enduring this horror” months after the court’s previous orders and “are crying out ... enough is enough”.
Israel will present its arguments on Friday.
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