Tag: Israel

  • US Welcomes Palestinian Authority Reform After PM Quits

    US Welcomes Palestinian Authority Reform After PM Quits

    The United States on Monday praised reforms by the Palestinian Authority as a step toward reuniting the West Bank with war-ravaged Gaza after the prime minister stepped down.

    “We do welcome steps for the PA to reform and revitalize itself,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, using the Palestinian Authority’s initials.

    Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had encouraged the Palestinian Authority “to take those steps” during talks with president Mahmud Abbas.

    “We think those steps are positive. We think they’re an important step to achieving a reunited Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority,” Miller said.

    He declined to comment directly on the resignation of prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, saying it was an internal matter for Palestinians.

    Shtayyeh submitted his resignation to 88-year-old Abbas, pointing to the need for change due to the “new reality” in the Gaza Strip, ruled by rivals Hamas.

    Israel launched a relentless military campaign into Gaza after Hamas on October 7 carried out the deadliest attack ever on Israeli soil.

    The Palestinian leadership has been divided since 2007, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited power in the West Bank.

    Blinken has called for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to exert control over the Gaza Strip after the war, an idea that has not been met with enthusiasm from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, which has voiced opposition to creating a Palestinian state.

  • Arab states tell UN court Israeli occupation is ‘affront to justice’

    Arab states tell UN court Israeli occupation is ‘affront to justice’

    The League of Arab States on Monday called Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories an “affront to international justice”, saying failure to end it amounted to “genocide”.

    The International Court of Justice entered its last day of week-long hearings after a request from the United Nations, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel’s occupation.

    “This prolonged occupation is an affront to international justice,” the 22 Arab-country bloc’s representative told judges in The Hague.

    “The failure to bring it to an end has led to the current horrors perpetrated against the Palestinian people, amounting to genocide,” Abdel Hakim El-Rifai said, reading a written statement.

    Most speakers during the hearings have demanded that Israel end its occupation, which came after a six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967.

    But last week the United States said Israel should not be legally obliged to withdraw without taking its “very real security needs” into account.

    Speakers on Monday warned a prolonged occupation posed an “extreme danger” to stability in the Middle East and beyond.

    “If left unchecked, it runs the risk of not only threatening regional, but also global peace and security,” Turkey’s representative Ahmet Yildiz said.

    Zambia’s representative however told judges that both sides had a duty to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

    “Both Israel and Palestine have a duty to respect international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” Marshal Mubambe Muchende said.

    He said any settlement of the conflict should not be “one that puts the blame squarely on one party, but rather one that advances a negotiated solution which culminates in a two-state solution”.

    ‘Prejudicial’

    The UN has asked the ICJ to hand down an “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.

    The court will probably deliver its opinion before the end of the year but it is not binding on anyone.

    Israel is not taking part in the oral hearings. It submitted a written contribution, in which it described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious”.

    The hearings began a week ago with three hours of testimony from Palestinian officials, who accused the Israeli occupiers of running a system of “colonialism and apartheid”.

    The case before the court is separate from one brought by South Africa against Israel for alleged genocide during its current offensive in Gaza.

    In that case, the ICJ ruled that Israel should do everything in its power to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and allow in humanitarian aid.

    Israeli’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 29,782 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • West Bank government submits resignation to President Abbas

    West Bank government submits resignation to President Abbas

    The Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, says he has submitted his government’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday that he had handed his West Bank government’s resignation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Shtayyeh added that he resigned last Tuesday but handed in the written resignation on Monday.

    What the Palestinian prime minister said

    “I submit the government’s resignation to Mr. President,” Shtayyeh said. He added that it came in the wake of the “developments related to the aggression against the Gaza Strip and the escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

    Shtayyeh said he was resigning to allow Palestinians to form a broad consensus among Palestinians about political arrangements amid Israel’s war against Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, in Gaza.

    The US has been pressuring Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the occupied West Bank. This comes amid international efforts to stop the war and work toward a political structure to govern Gaza afterward.

    Abbas has yet to accept the resignation, and he may ask the Palestinian prime minister to stay in the role until a replacement is found.

    In a statement to the Cabinet, Shtayyeh said the next stage would “require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks, and the urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus.”

    He added that “the extension of the [Palestinian] Authority’s authority over the entire land, Palestine,” is another requirement.

    The Palestinian Authority lost control over the Gaza Strip following a struggle with Hamas in 2007. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, and Israel.

  • Israeli military proposes ‘plan for evacuating’ Gaza civilians

    Israeli military proposes ‘plan for evacuating’ Gaza civilians

    Palestinian Territories – Israel’s military proposed a plan for evacuating civilians from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Monday, after he said a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory’s southern city Rafah was necessary for “total victory”.

    Foreign governments and aid organisations have repeatedly expressed fears that such an operation will inflict mass civilian casualties.

    More than 1.4 million Palestinians – most of them displaced from elsewhere – have converged on the last Gazan city untouched by Israel’s ground troops.

    It is also the entry point for desperately needed aid, brought in via neighbouring Egypt.

    Israel’s military “presented the War Cabinet with a plan for evacuating the population from areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and with the upcoming operational plan”, a statement in Hebrew from Netayahu’s office said Monday.

    The statement did not give any details about how or where the civilians would be moved.

    The announcement comes after Egyptian, Qatari and US “experts” met in Doha for talks also attended by Israeli and Hamas representatives, state-linked Egyptian media reported, the latest effort to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    Israel’s ally the United States said ongoing mediation efforts produced “an understanding” towards a ceasefire and hostage release, while a Hamas source said the group insisted on the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

    But Netanyahu – who has dismissed the withdrawal demand as “delusional” – said a ground invasion of Rafah would put Israel within weeks of “total victory” over Hamas.

    “If we have a (truce) deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen,” he said of the ground invasion in an interview with CBS Sunday.

    “It has to be done because total victory is our goal and total victory is within reach — not months away, weeks away, once we begin the operation.”

    Amid a spiralling humanitarian crisis, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians urged political action to avert famine in Gaza.

    Dire food shortages in northern Gaza are “a man-made disaster” that can be mitigated, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

    “Famine can still be avoided through genuine political will to grant access and protection to meaningful assistance.”

    The UN has said it faces restrictions, particularly on aid deliveries to northern Gaza.

    ‘No aid’

    Nearly five months into the war, desperate families in Gaza’s north have been forced to scavenge for something to eat.

    “We have no food or drink for ourselves or our children,” Omar al-Kahlout told AFP, as he waited near Gaza City for aid trucks to arrive.

    “We are trapped in the north and there is no aid reaching us — the situation is extremely difficult.”

    Hundreds of Palestinians headed south whichever way they could, walking down garbage-strewn roads between the blackened shells of bombed-out buildings, said an AFP correspondent.

    Israeli forces continued striking targets across the Palestinian territory and battling militants in heavy urban combat centred on the southern city of Khan Yunis, near Rafah.

    The Israeli military campaign has killed at least 29,692 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

    The war broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack, which killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

    ‘Expanding the conflict’

    Mediators have voiced hope that a temporary truce and a hostage-prisoner exchange can be secured before the start of Ramadan on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

    Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned fighting during the holy month “will increase the threat of expanding the conflict”, according to a royal statement.

    Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, whose country hosts Hamas leaders and had helped broker a one-week truce in November, is due in Paris this week, the French presidency said.

    Media reports suggest the warring parties are weighing a six-week halt to fighting and the initial exchange of dozens of female, underage and ill hostages for several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel.

    Hezbollah threat

    Across from overcrowded Rafah, neighbouring Egypt has kept its border closed, saying it will not help facilitate any operation to push Palestinians out of Gaza.

    But satellite images show it has built a walled enclosure next to Gaza, in an apparent effort to brace for the possible arrival of large numbers of refugees.

    Inside Israel, pressure has grown on Netanyahu from families of hostages demanding swifter action, and resurgent anti-government protests.

    Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said there would be no let-up in action against Hamas’s powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah, whose militants have traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since early October.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Israel to discuss ‘next steps’ in Gaza truce talks

    Israel to discuss ‘next steps’ in Gaza truce talks

    Palestinian Territories – Israel sounded a positive note Saturday on efforts to broker a new hostage release and ceasefire deal in its war on Gaza, as concern deepened over the growing humanitarian crisis in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

    As aid agencies warned of unprecedented levels of desperation and looming famine, dozens more Gazans were killed in Israeli strikes, the health ministry said.

    An Israeli delegation led by Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea travelled to Paris for a fresh push towards a deal over a ceasefire.

    National security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said Israel’s war cabinet would meet later Saturday to hear an update after the delegation returned from the talks with mediators.

    “There is probably room to move towards an agreement,” Hanegbi told N12 News television in an interview, without elaborating.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Saturday’s meeting would discuss the “next steps in the negotiations”.

    As with a previous week-long truce in November that saw more than 100 hostages freed, Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been spearheading efforts to secure a deal.

    White House envoy Brett McGurk held talks this week with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, after speaking to other mediators in Cairo who had met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.

    As civilians in the besieged territory struggled to get food and supplies, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees warned Gazans were “in extreme peril while the world watches”.

    In northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, bedraggled children held plastic containers and battered cooking pots for what little food was available.

    – ‘Unprecedented desperation’ –

    Food is running out, with aid agencies unable to get into the area because of the bombing, while the trucks that do try to get through face frenzied looting.

    Residents have taken to eating scavenged scraps of rotten corn, animal fodder unfit for human consumption and even leaves.

    The World Food Programme said this week its teams reported “unprecedented levels of desperation” while the United Nations warned that 2.2 million people were on the brink of famine.

    The health ministry said on Saturday that a two-month-old baby identified as Mahmud Fatuh had died of “malnutrition” in Gaza City.

    Save the Children said the risk of famine would continue to “increase as long as the government of Israel continues to impede the entry of aid into Gaza”.

    Israel has defended its track record on allowing aid into Gaza, saying that 13,000 trucks carrying relief supplies had entered the territory since the start of the war.

    With tempers rising dozens of people in the Jabalia camp on Friday held an impromptu protest.

    “We didn’t die from air strikes but we are dying from hunger,” read a sign held by one child.

    ‘Bring them back’

    Following October 7 attack, Hamas took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 29,606 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest tally from Gaza’s health ministry.

    Pressure has mounted on Netanyahu’s government to negotiate a ceasefire and secure the release of the hostages.

    A group representing their families held a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to demand swifter action.

    “We keep telling you: bring them back to us! And no matter how,” said Avivit Yablonka, 45, whose sister Hanan was captured on October 7.

    Hamas said Saturday that Israeli forces launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in Gazan cities including Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and Rafah over the previous 24 hours.

    The health ministry said at least 92 people were killed.

    More Rafah strikes

    An AFP reporter in Rafah said there had been at least six air strikes on the city on Saturday evening.

    At Najjar hospital in the city, AFP saw bodies carried from ambulances and placed in the courtyard of the hospital in body bags, while relatives grieved nearby.

    Inside the hospital, medics treated several wounded men who were laid out on the floor, one with his head wrapped in bandages.

    In Khan Yunis, which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks, Israel’s military said it was “intensifying the operations” using tanks, close-range fire and aircraft.

    “The soldiers raided the residence of a senior military intelligence operative” in the area, a military statement said.

    With war still raging after more than four months, Netanyahu unveiled a plan for post-war Gaza this week which envisages civil affairs being run by Palestinian officials without links to Hamas.

    It also says Israel will continue with the establishment of a security buffer zone inside Gaza along the territory’s border.

    The plan has been rejected by both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

    Israel’s key ally the United States said it did not support a “reoccupation” or a “reduction of the size of Gaza”, and said “Palestinian people should have a voice and a vote… through a revitalised Palestinian Authority”.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Islamophobia Soared In UK With Israeli Genocide in Gaza

    Islamophobia Soared In UK With Israeli Genocide in Gaza

    Anti-Muslim hate incidents in the UK more than tripled following the Israeli genocide in Gaza, a monitoring group said Thursday.

    Tell MAMA recorded 2,010 such cases in the four months since Hamas’s attack against Israel on October 7 which resulted in intensified Israel bombarding Gaza.

    That was the largest recorded number of cases in a four-month period, said a statement from the organisation, which was set up to monitor and report such incidents.

    The latest figures were up from 600 incidents over the same period in 2022-2023, a rise of 335 percent.

    “We are deeply concerned about the impacts that the Israel and Gaza war are having on hate crimes and on social cohesion in the UK,” said Tell MAMA director Iman Atta.

    “This rise in anti-Muslim hate is unacceptable and we hope that political leaders speak out to send a clear message that anti-Muslim hate, like anti-Semitism, is unacceptable in our country.”

    Tell MAMA said that 901 cases occurred offline while 1,109 were online. Most of the offline incidents took place in the British capital London, it added.

    They included abusive behaviour, threats, assaults, vandalism, discrimination, hate speech and anti-Muslim literature.

    Women were the target in 65 percent of cases, the group said.

    Earlier this month, a Jewish charity reported that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain hit record levels last year, with a surge after Hamas’s attack.

    The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, recorded 4,103 “anti-Jewish hate incidents” in 2023, its highest annual tally since it began counting them in 1984.

    That represented a 147-percent increase on the 1,662 incidents recorded in 2022.

    Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza and sustained military campaign has killed at least 29,410 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest health ministry figures.

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    The Barron’s news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This article was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.
    © Agence France-Presse

  • Prince William calls for an end to war on Gaza

    Prince William calls for an end to war on Gaza

    The British Prince William has said that the “sheer scale of human suffering” had brought home the need for peace in an enclave “where too many have been killed”, reports Al Jazeera.

    In a rare, direct intervention for a member of the royal family, William, the heir to the British throne, said it was critical that aid gets through to those who need it in Gaza.

    “Sometimes, it is only when faced with the sheer scale of human suffering that the importance of permanent peace is brought home,” he said in a statement.

    The 41-year-old visited the British Red Cross headquarters in London on Tuesday to hear about their work supporting people affected by war in the Middle East.

    “I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible,” he said. “There is a desperate need for increased humanitarian support to Gaza. It’s critical that aid gets in and the hostages are released.”

    Previously, the heir apparent of the British throne, Prince William, was reportedly set to commence a number of royal engagements in order to “recognise the human suffering” as a result of Israeli operations on Gaza and in the Middle East.

    Kensington Palace has said that the future King will also take into consideration increasing anti-Semitism around the world.

    He is set to meet with humanitarian workers in the region while also visiting a synagogue to listen to the youth countering anti-Semitism.

    “The prince and princess were profoundly concerned by events that unfolded in late 2023 and continue to hold all the victims, their family and friends in their hearts and minds,” his office said.

  • UN experts urge probe of Israeli abuses of Palestinian women, girls

    UN experts urge probe of Israeli abuses of Palestinian women, girls

    Geneva, Switzerland – UN rights experts called Monday for an independent probe into alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinian women and girls, including killings, rapes and sexual assault.

    The statement by the seven independent UN experts prompted an angry reaction from Israel, which rejected the “despicable and unfounded claims”.

    The experts voiced alarm at “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” targeting women and girls in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

    They cited reports of women and girls reportedly being “arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children”.

    “We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing,” they said.

    The independent experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not represent the United Nations, also pointed to the “arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls”, including human rights defenders, journalists and humanitarians.

    They said many of those detained had reported been subjected to “inhuman and degrading treatment”, including severe beatings and being denied menstrual pads, food and medicine.

    They voiced particular alarm at reports of “multiple forms of sexual assault”, including reports of rapes of at least two female detainees, while others were “stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers”.

    Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 29,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

    The experts called for an “independent, impartial, prompt, thorough and effective investigation” into the allegations, urging Israel to cooperate.

    The Israeli mission in Geneva dismissed the statement saying the experts were “motivated by their hatred for Israel, not by the truth”.

    It said Israeli authorities had received no complaints, but stood ready to investigate any “concrete claims of misconduct by its security forces when presented with credible allegations and evidence”.

  • UN Security Council vote on Gaza faces threat of US veto

    UN Security Council vote on Gaza faces threat of US veto

    United Nations (United States) (AFP) – The UN Security Council will vote on a new draft resolution Tuesday calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, despite threat of a third US veto on such a text.

    The document, prepared by Algeria, “demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that must be respected by all parties.”

    The vote comes as Israel prepares to move into the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where some 1.4 million people have fled, as part of its mission to destroy “Hamas”.

    However it is facing increased pressure to hold off, including from its closest ally the United States.

    The draft resolution opposes the “forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population.”

    It additionally demands the release of all Hamas hostages.

    Similarly to other previous drafts spurned by the United States and Israel, the new text does not condemn Hamas’s October 7 assault.

    That attack left about 1,160 people dead in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

    Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 29,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the health ministry.

    The United States warned over the weekend that Algeria’s text was not acceptable, threatening to veto it.

    “We don’t believe that this Council product will help the situation on the ground,” US deputy ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said Monday.

    “If this resolution does come to a vote, it will not go forward.”

    According to Wood, the passage of such a ceasefire resolution would endanger ongoing delicate diplomatic negotiations which could see the release of hostages from Gaza.

    The United States instead began circulating an alternate draft, seen by AFP Monday.

    While that text does include the word “ceasefire” — which the United States has previously avoided, vetoing two drafts in October and December which used the term — it does not call for the end of hostilities to happen immediately.

    ‘Moral obligation’

    Echoing recent comments by President Joe Biden, the US draft supports a “temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released.”

    It also mentions concern for Rafah, stating that “a major ground offensive should not proceed under current circumstances.”

    There is no “deadline” for a vote on the American draft, a senior US official said Monday, adding there would be no “rush.”

    But even if there is no hurry, the US text “as it is… cannot pass,” one diplomatic source said, citing several issues around the phrasing of “ceasefire” and the risk that any text introduced to the 15-member body by the United States might face a veto from Russia.

    In any case, the mere fact the United States has introduced a counter-resolution is likely to “make Israel nervous,” Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP.

    “The US is finally using the Security Council as a platform to signal the limits of its patience with the Israeli campaign,” Gowan said.

    Despite the specter of a US veto, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour had insisted on a vote days ago, saying that the Arab Group had been “more than generous to give our colleagues additional time.”

    According to Gowan, “We are now grinding towards a US veto that nobody really wants, but nobody can avoid,” noting that the vote will fall within a few days of the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    “I am sure that Russia will use the opportunity (of a US veto) to accuse the US of having double standards when it comes to dealing with civilian suffering in Ukraine and the Middle East,” Gowan said.

    Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said it is “sad that we cannot come (up) with a ceasefire… and that only one delegation is preventing that.”

    Chinese representative Jun Zhang said the Security Council has a “moral obligation” to take action “to stop the killings,” pointing out that the United States may veto such a move but meanwhile they are “always calling for protection of human rights.”

  • Palestinians call out Israel for ‘apartheid’ at UN top court

    Palestinians call out Israel for ‘apartheid’ at UN top court

    The Hague (AFP) – Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki told the UN’s top court Monday his people were suffering “colonialism and apartheid” under the Israelis, urging judges to order an immediate and unconditional end to the occupation.

    “The Palestinians have endured colonialism and apartheid… There are those who are enraged by these words. They should be enraged by the reality we are suffering,” Al-Maliki told the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    The ICJ is holding hearings all week on the legal implications of Israel’s occupation since 1967, with an unprecedented 52 countries, including the United States and Russia, expected to give evidence.

    Speaking in the Peace Palace in The Hague, where the ICJ sits, the minister urged judges to declare the occupation illegal and order it to stop “immediately, totally and unconditionally.”

    “Justice delayed is justice denied and the Palestinian people have been denied justice for far too long,” he said.

    “It is time to put an end to the double standards that have kept our people captive for far too long.”

    ‘Impunity and inaction’

    In December 2022, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ for a non-binding “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

    While any ICJ opinion would be non-binding, it comes amid mounting international legal pressure on Israel over the intense attacks on Gaza.

    The hearings are separate from a high-profile case brought by South Africa alleging that Israel is committing genocidal acts during the current Gaza offensive.

    Al-Maliki charged however that “the Genocide underway in Gaza is a result of decades of impunity and inaction.”

    “Ending Israel’s impunity is a moral, political and legal imperative,” he said.

    In January, the ICJ ruled in that case that Israel must do everything in its power to prevent genocide and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, stopping short of ordering a ceasefire.

    On Friday, it rejected South Africa’s bid to impose additional measures on Israel, but reiterated the need to carry out the ruling in full.

    ‘Prolonged occupation’

    The UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to consider two questions.

    Firstly, the court should examine the legal consequences of what the UN called “the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.

    This relates to the “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” and “measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem”.

    In June 1967, Israel crushed some of its Arab neighbours in a six-day war, seizing the West Bank including east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

    Israel then began to settle the 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 square miles) of seized Arab territory. The UN later declared the occupation of Palestinian territory illegal. Cairo regained Sinai under its 1979 peace deal with Israel.

    The ICJ has also been asked to look into the consequences of what it described as Israel’s “adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”

    Secondly, the ICJ should advise on how Israel’s actions “affect the legal status of the occupation” and what are the consequences for the UN and other countries.

    The court will rule “urgently” on the affair, probably by the end of the year.

    Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside the court, waving flags and brandishing banners.

    “I really hope justice will prevail,” organiser Nadia Slimi told AFP.

    “I really hope all the combined efforts to pressure Israel, to demand a more humane policy, will finally lead to some steps to liberate the Palestinian people,” said the 27-year-old.

    ‘Despicable’

    The ICJ rules in disputes between states and its judgements are binding although it has little means to enforce them.

    However, in this case, the opinion it issues will be non-binding although most advisory opinions are in fact acted upon.

    Israel is not participating in the hearings and reacted angrily to the 2022 UN request, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “despicable” and “disgraceful”.

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that while advisory opinions are non-binding, “they can carry great moral and legal authority” and can eventually be inscribed in international law.