UN court rules on Gaza Strip 'genocide'

THE HAGUE/JERUSALEM — United Nations judges in The Hague said on Friday that at least some rights sought by South Africa in its genocide case against Israel's operation in Gaza are plausible, as South Africa's bid has found support across the developing world from Latin America to Southeast Asia.

The judges of the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, ordered Israel to take measures to prevent and punish direct incitement of genocide in its operation in Gaza.

"The state of Israel shall ... take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of the Genocide convention," the court said.

In the sweeping ruling, a large majority of the 17-judge panel of the ICJ voted for urgent measures which covered most of what South Africa asked for with the notable exception of ordering a halt to Israeli military action in Gaza.

The court's rulings are final and without appeal, but it has no way of enforcing them.

On the ground in the seaside enclave, Gaza officials said on Thursday that Israeli strikes killed 20 Palestinians queuing for food aid in Gaza City, six people in a house in central Gaza's Al-Nusseirat refugee camp and at least 50 people in the prior 24 hours in Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis, where Israel is currently focusing the brunt of its might.

South Africa said Israel is in breach of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, set up in the ashes of World War II and the Holocaust.

"The ICJ must see the frustration of the international community," Hikmahanto Juwana, international law professor at the University of Indonesia, said.

"There should be a response."

Experts said South Africa's emergency case has laid bare a growing rift between Israel and its Western allies, and nations in the Global South.

Israel has called South Africa's allegations false and "grossly distorted", with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that "the world is upside down".

Humanitarian crisis

In more than three months of conflict, Israel's campaign has leveled much of the enclave, displaced nearly 2 million Palestinians and killed at least 26,000 people, according to Gaza officials. Israel launched its offensive in October after militants from Hamas, which rules Gaza, stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.

As the conflict's civilian toll soared and diplomatic cease-fire efforts sputtered, backers of the Palestinian cause have looked to legal routes to halt the violence.

The loudest supporters of the case include Muslim-majority states Iran, Turkiye, Jordan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives.

They also include a slate of Latin American nations including Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been the most active Latin American leader, accusing Israel of "acts of terrorism".

Israel's strongest ally the United States has opposed the case, and some European Union members and the United Kingdom have refused to support it, with France saying accusing Israel of genocide "crosses a moral threshold".

"I'm not so sure that everyone in the West is in favor of Israel and everyone in the Global South is opposed to Israel," Marco Sassoli, international law professor at the University of Geneva, said.

On Thursday, thousands of homeless people sheltering in Khan Younis sought to flee to Rafah, 15 kilometers away, the UN relief agency for Palestinians said.

A video posted on X by Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, showed a crowd of people walking en masse on Thursday on a dirt road. "A sea of people forced to flee Khan Younis, ending up at the border with Egypt. A never-ending search for safety that #Gaza is no longer able to give", Lazzarini wrote.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said less than 20 percent of the narrow enclave — around 60 square kilometers — now harbored over 1.5 million homeless people in the south.

Agencies Via Xinhua