THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations' top court ordered Israel on Friday to do everything in its power to prevent death, destruction and genocide in Gaza, but the body did not order Jerusalem to end the military offensive end has devastated the Palestinian enclave.
In a ruling that will keep Israel under the legal lens for years to come, the court offered little other comfort to Israeli leaders in a genocide case brought by South Africa that goes to the heart of one of the world's most intractable conflicts. Without a ceasefire or a break in fighting, it will be difficult to enforce the court's half-dozen orders.
“The Court is acutely aware of the magnitude of the human tragedy unfolding in the region and is deeply concerned by the ongoing loss of life and human suffering,” said Court President Joan E. Donoghue.
International Court of Justice President Joan E. Donoghue says a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 triggered a major response from Israel.
The ruling amounted to a stunning rebuke of Israel's wartime conduct and added to growing international pressure to halt the nearly four-month-long offensive that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, decimated swathes of the Gaza Strip and displaced nearly 85% of its 2.3 million residents were out of their houses.
That the allegations persisted hurt the government of Israel, which was founded as a Jewish state after the Nazis murdered six million Jews in World War II.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fact that the court was willing to discuss the genocide allegations was a “mark of shame that will not be erased for generations.” He promised to advance the war.
The power of the ruling was heightened by its timing on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“The ones who really need to stand trial are those who murdered and kidnapped children, women and the elderly,” said former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, referring to Hamas militants killed in the Oct. 7 attack That sparked the war, Israeli communities stormed. Around 1,200 people were killed in the attack and another 250 were kidnapped.
The court also ordered Hamas to release the hostages still in captivity. Hamas called on the international community to force Israel to carry out the court's orders.
Many of the measures were approved by the overwhelming majority of justices. Of the six orders, an Israeli judge voted for two – one to provide humanitarian assistance and another to prevent inflammatory speech.
Israeli Judge Aharon Barak said he supported these orders in the hope that they would “help reduce tensions and discourage harmful rhetoric” while mitigating the “consequences of the armed conflict on the most vulnerable.”
Such interim measures issued by the World Court are legally binding, but it is not clear whether Israel will comply with them.
“We will continue to do everything necessary to defend our country and our people,” said Netanyahu, who defended himself against the verdict in two languages. In a message aimed at his domestic audience, the tone in Hebrew was more defiant and he shied away from openly criticizing the dish in English.
The court ruled that Israel must do everything it can to prevent genocide, including refraining from harming or killing Palestinians. It also ruled that Israel must urgently receive basic aid to Gaza and that the country should, among other things, punish any incitement to genocide.
The panel called on Israel to submit a report on the measures taken within a month.
“That's when the court could come back and say, 'You didn't follow the orders.' They didn't comply. Now we find that you are in the process of committing genocide,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame University.
Friday's decision was a preliminary decision. It could take years for the court to consider all aspects of South Africa's genocide allegations.
In Israel, commentators said the decision not to order a ceasefire was met with some relief as it helped Israel avoid a clash with a high-level UN body.
Palestinians and their supporters said the court took an important step toward holding Israel accountable. The foreign ministry of the internationally backed Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank said the verdict “should serve as a wake-up call for Israel and the actors who have enabled its entrenched impunity,” an apparent reference to the United States, Israel’s key ally.
The US reiterated its position that Israel must “take all possible steps” to minimize harm to civilians, increase humanitarian assistance and curb “dehumanizing rhetoric.”
“We continue to believe that the allegations of genocide are unfounded,” the State Department said in a statement.
The South African government said the ruling establishes that “Israel’s actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal.”
“There is no credible basis for Israel to continue to claim that its military actions are fully consistent with international law,” the government said in a statement.
Israel often boycotts international tribunals and UN investigations, saying they are unfair and biased. But this time it took the rare step of sending a senior legal team – a sign of how seriously it is taking the case.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip does not differentiate between combatants and civilians when it comes to the death toll, but the agency said about two-thirds of those killed were women and children.
The Israeli military claims at least 9,000 of the more than 26,000 dead were Hamas fighters.
UN officials have expressed fears that more people could die from disease and malnutrition, with at least a quarter of Gaza's population at risk of starvation.
Yuval Shany, a law professor at the Hebrew University and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the court's decision was “not as bad as Israel feared” and would not fundamentally change the way the military wages the war .
“The biggest fear was that the court would ask Israel to end the war,” Shany said, describing the decision as “something Israel can live with.”
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Casert reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa; and Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
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