Both Israel and South Africa hailed the United Nations’s top court’s preliminary ruling in the case of whether the former is carrying out genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Israel to “take all measures” to prevent genocide in Gaza, but it did not order Israel to stop its war in Gaza. South African leaders, Palestinians, and their allies were hoping the ICJ would order a halt to war, while Israel was looking for the court to dismiss the case outright, neither of which it did, meaning neither party got its ultimate goal.
“I would have wanted a ceasefire,” South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor said after the ruling in The Hague, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a short video, “The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected.”
“The court considers that the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the court renders its final judgment,” said Judge Joan Donoghue, the court’s president. “The court considers that there is urgency in the sense that there is a real and imminent risk at irreparable prejudice will be caused to the rights found by the court to be plausible before it gives its final decision.”
Israel is attempting to demilitarize and remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which hundreds of Hamas fighters and other militants overwhelmed the Israeli border and rampaged through southern Israel, leaving approximately 1,200 people dead. Another roughly 250 were taken hostage during the attack, and more than 100 remain captive in Gaza more than three months later.
The court also called for the hostages’ unconditional release.
The Israeli military’s campaign has decimated much of Gaza. More than 25,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, though that number includes both civilians and combatants. The overwhelming majority of the population has been displaced, while international leaders are warning of a collapsing healthcare system and the possibility of widespread famine and disease.
Hamas urged the international community in a statement to enforce the court’s rulings and demanded an end to the “crime of genocide,” though the court did not rule on whether Israel’s actions constitute genocide.
On Friday, Hamas also released its latest hostage video, featuring three women.
U.S. officials said the court’s ruling was in line with many of the same instructions it had been giving to Israel throughout the war.
“I think the court’s ruling is consistent with many of our positions and much of the approach that we’ve taken with Israel,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said during Friday’s White House briefing. “We continue to believe that Israel needs to get the support that they need to defend themselves against a still viable threat by Hamas, an organization that wants to wipe them off the map. So we’re going to continue to support Israel. At the same time, we can still continue to urge Israel to be more careful and more precise. We can continue to urge Israel to get more humanitarian assistance.”
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Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department on Friday suspended additional aid to the United Nations agency that works in the Palestinian territories following allegations that a dozen of its employees participated in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
UNRWA has long been accused of aiding Hamas, though the new allegations will presumably result in more scrutiny depending on the results of the investigation.
