Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, just one day after the top UN court ordered the IDF to halt its military operations in the southern city.
It comes as efforts get underway in Paris to seek a ceasefire in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) demanded the immediate release of all hostages still held by Palestinian militants hours after the Israeli military announced troops had recovered the bodies of three more of the captives from northern Gaza.
The Hague-based court, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, also ordered Israel to keep open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which it closed earlier this month at the start of its assault on the city.
Israel gave no indication it was preparing to change course in Rafah, insisting that the court had got it wrong.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip May 24, 2024
Palestinians fleeing from Jabalia in the northern region pictured arriving in Gaza City May 24, 2024
‘Israel has not and will not carry out military operations in the Rafah area that create living conditions that could cause the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part,’ National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a joint statement with Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, welcomed the ICJ ruling on Rafah but criticised its decision to exclude the rest of war-torn Gaza from the order.
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office this week said the war cabinet had asked the Israeli delegation ‘to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages’.
CIA chief Bill Burns was expected to meet Israeli representatives in Paris in a bid to relaunch negotiations, a Western source close to the issue said.
Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron received the prime minister of Qatar and the Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers on Friday ‘to press for a ceasefire’, according to Cairo.
The French presidency said they held talks on the Gaza war and ways to set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The five countries discussed ‘the effective implementation of the two-state solution’, it added.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken also spoke with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopening of the Rafah border crossing as soon as possible, Washington said.
Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, just one day after the top UN court ordered the IDF to halt its military operations in the southern city May 24, 2024
In a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, ICJ president Nawaf Salam delivered the ruling of the 15-strong panel of judges at The Hague
A lone demonstrator waves the Palestinian flag outside the Peace Palace, rear, housing the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague
Smoke rises during an Israeli air strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 24, 2024
Palestinian witnesses reported Israeli strikes in Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.
‘We hope that the court’s decision will put pressure on Israel to end this war of extermination, because there is nothing left here,’ said Oum Mohammad Al-Ashqa, a Palestinian woman from Gaza City displaced to Deir al-Balah by the war.
‘But Israel is a state that considers itself above the law. Therefore, I do not believe that the shooting or the war will stop other than by force,’ said Mohammed Saleh, also in the central Gaza Strip city.
Israeli troops took over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, further slowing sporadic deliveries of aid for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
But on Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed in a call with his US counterpart Joe Biden to allow UN aid through the other entry point into southern Gaza, the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel, the White House said.
The US military has also installed a temporary jetty on the Gaza coast to receive aid by sea that a UN spokesman said had delivered 97 trucks of aid after ‘a rocky start’ a week ago.
The security and humanitarian situation in the territory remains alarming, with a risk of famine, hospitals out of service, and around 800,000 people, according to the United Nations, having fled Rafah in the last two weeks.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said the situation had reached ‘a moment of clarity’.
‘Aid workers and UN staff must be able to carry out their jobs in safety,’ he posted on social media site X late Friday.
‘At a time when the people of Gaza are staring down famine… it is more critical than ever to heed the calls made over the last seven months: Release the hostages. Agree a ceasefire. End this nightmare.’
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