The United Nations’ top court on Friday said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and facilitate “urgently needed” humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, handing down rulings in a case that has drawn global attention.
The court urged Israel to refrain from any possible genocidal acts as it presses its military operation in the Gaza Strip, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.
Israel must take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians,” the court said.
At this stage, the ICJ was not considering whether Israel was actually committing genocide in Gaza — that process would take several years.
But the court warned Israel to “take all measures in its power to prevent” acts that could fall under the UN Genocide Convention, set up in 1948 as the world reeled from the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.
It also said Israel should “prevent and punish” any incitement to genocide.
The case was brought by South Africa, which has accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention.
Over two days of hearings earlier this month in the gilded hall of the Peace Palace, where the ICJ sits, lawyers from both sides battled it over the interpretation of this Convention.
South Africa accused Israel of “genocidal” acts that were intended to cause the “destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”
It urged the court to order Israel to “immediately suspend” its military operations in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid to reach the civiilians there.
