South Africa on Thursday urged the judges of the United Nations’ prime court docket to order Israel to finish its floor assault on Rafah in southern Gaza, saying it put Palestinian life within the enclave at imminent threat of destruction.
The listening to on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice in The Hague got here after South Africa requested final week that the court docket difficulty additional constraints on Israel in its army marketing campaign in Gaza. In filings disclosed by the court docket, South Africa cited the “irreparable hurt” posed by Israel’s incursion into Rafah, the southernmost metropolis in Gaza the place half of the territory’s inhabitants had sought refuge.
“It has grow to be more and more clear that Israel’s actions in Rafah are a part of the tip recreation during which Gaza is totally destroyed as an space able to human habitation,” Vaughan Lowe, a British lawyer, informed the court docket. “That is the final step within the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian folks.”
Mr. Lowe was a part of the South African authorized crew that introduced its case over two hours on Thursday.
South Africa’s filings stated the rights of Palestinians in Gaza had been below risk, including that Israel’s management over two main border crossings in southern Gaza — at Rafah and at Kerem Shalom — put at excessive threat the movement of humanitarian provides into Gaza and the flexibility for hospitals there to operate.
“It’s tough to think about such a state of affairs may worsen, however, sadly, it has,” John Dugard, one other member of the South African crew, informed the court docket.
A number of members of the crew addressed the court docket in an try to construct their case, quoting continuously from warnings by senior United Nations officers that an assault on Rafah would worsen situations for civilians and the enclave’s starvation disaster.
One member of South African authorized crew, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, quoted statements by senior Israeli officers that he stated confirmed an intent to destroy Gaza as an entire and never merely Hamas, the nation’s acknowledged enemy.
The authorized crew additionally requested the court docket to order Israel to facilitate entry to Gaza for help employees, investigators, fact-finding missions and journalists.
One of many attorneys, Adila Hassim, confirmed the court docket a photograph of shattered buildings in Khan Younis, a metropolis north of Rafah, for instance the devastation attributable to Israel’s army in Gaza as an entire. Ms. Hassim gave the impression to be on the verge of tears as she described the deaths of kids within the army marketing campaign.
Israel has vehemently denied South Africa’s claims, repeating that it has positioned no restrictions on the quantity of help coming into the enclave and that it has taken steps not too long ago to ramp up the quantity of meals and different provides stepping into, together with opening two crossing factors in northern Gaza.
Israel has additionally stated that its newest assault on japanese Rafah was a “exact operation” concentrating on solely members of Hamas, the terrorist group that led the Oct. 7 assaults, which Israeli authorities say killed greater than 1,200 Israelis and led to the seize of about 250 others.
Israel is predicted to make its protection earlier than the court docket on Friday. Gilad Noam, Israel’s deputy lawyer basic for worldwide regulation, is among the many officers within the Israeli delegation who’re anticipated to handle the court docket. It was not clear when the court docket would difficulty a call, however on condition that South Africa stated on Thursday that its petition was extraordinarily pressing as a result of an assault on Rafah was ongoing, it appeared doable {that a} ruling may come quickly.
The hearings are a part of South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide, which it filed in December. In late January, the court docket ordered Israel to do extra to stop acts of genocide, however it stopped wanting calling for a cease-fire. The primary case, coping with the accusation of genocide, shouldn’t be anticipated to start out till subsequent yr.
The court docket, established by the founding constitution of the United Nations in 1945, was created to settle disputes between member states. It has no technique of implementing its orders, however the South Africa case has contributed to the worldwide strain on Israel to rein in its marketing campaign in Gaza.
Marlise Simons and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
