Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 17th May. UN International Court of Justice on Thursday opened public hearings at the request from South Africa for emergency provisional measures to immediately halt Israeli operations under way in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians were taken refuge since the war between Hamas and Israel began on October 7.
ICJ’s 15 judges asked to order Israel to “immediately withdraw and seize its military operations in the Rafah governate” and open up the enclave to international aid workers and journalists.
South Africa’s ongoing case charged Israel with violating the Genocide Convention, the new request, filed on 10 May.
South Africa delivered its arguments on Thursday and Israel is expected to respond at public hearings on Friday at ICJ, which was established by the UN Charter as the principal judicial organ of the UN.
UN agencies warned a looming famine and deeper deadly Israeli incursions into Gaza.
The urgent request has asked the court to order Israel to immediately “ensure and facilitate unimpeded access” to the enclave for UN and other aid officials, fact-finding missions, investigators and journalists.
The measure was requested to allow those officials and reporters “to assess and record conditions on the ground in Gaza and enable the effective preservation and retention of evidence”, with Israel to ensure “its military does not act to prevent such access”, according to South Africa’s application.
South Africa requested the court to require Israel to submit, within one week of the order, a report on steps taken to implement these new provisional measures.
South Africa envoy, Vusimuzi Madonsela, said his country was compelled to return to the court under its obligations under the Genocide Convention “due to the continuing annihilation of the Palestinian people, with over 35,000 now killed and most of Gaza reduced to rubble”.
“Despite the short notice of this hearing, South Africa has travelled here today to do what it can to stop the ongoing genocide,” he said.
He said that Israel is “breaching the binding orders of this court” and of Security Council resolutions.
Vusimuzi Madonsela referred ICJ orders in January for provisional measures related to the South Africa v. Israel case for Israel to other things ensure the required aid enters Gaza unimpeded.
Vaughn Lowe said lawyers and experts presented South Africa’s arguments on Thursday for its newest request, “the key point today is that Israel’s declared aim of wiping Gaza from the map is about to be realised.”
“Evidence of appalling crimes and atrocities is literally being destroyed and bulldozed, in effect wiping the slate clean for those who’ve committed these crimes and making a mockery of justice,” he said.
Max du Plessis, a lawyer for South Africa, said Israel’s declared “safe zones” are anything but safe.
“There is nothing humanitarian about these humanitarian zones,” he said.
“Israel’s genocide of Palestinians continues through military attacks and man-made starvation.”
The ICJ has delivered several orders for provisional measures on the South Africa v. Israel case, which began in January after South Africa’s application on 29 December for the world court to consider its allegations against Israel for contraventions of the Genocide Convention.
The ICJ delivered an order on 26 January for provisional measures, declaring that Palestinians had a right to be protected from acts of genocide and calling on Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent such actions and allow the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The court delivered additional provisional measures in March, responding to a request from South Africa.
ICJ ordered Israel, “in view of the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of famine and starvation”, to take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza”.
UN top court will hear Israel’s response on Friday.
The ICJ justices will meet to render a decision on whether or not to issue a fresh order.
The provisional measures are a type of temporary injunction ahead of a final decision on the case which will likely take years before a judgement is reached.
The measures are considered “mandatory for implementation”, but the court has no means of enforcing them.
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