Judges at the top United Nations court ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in a landmark emergency ruling in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide.

While the International Court of Justice, or World Court, has no means to enforce its orders, the case was a stark sign of Israel’s global isolation over its campaign in Gaza, particularly since it began its offensive against Rafah this month against the pleas of its closest ally the United States.

Reading out the ruling, World Court president Nawaf Salam said the situation in the Palestinian enclave had deteriorated since the court last ordered Israel to take steps to improve it, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order, Reuters reported.

“The state of Israel shall (….) immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” he said.

Israel had not explained how it would keep the population safe during an evacuation of Rafah, or provide food, water, sanitation and medicine for the 800,000 Palestinians that had already fled the Israeli advance, he said.

The ICJ ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to let in aid. Israel, it added, must provide access for investigators and report back on its progress within one month.

The order was adopted by the panel of 15 international judges in a 13-2 vote, opposed only by judges from Uganda and Israel itself.

South Africa hailed the ruling as groundbreaking.

A White House spokesperson said “We’ve been clear and consistent on our position on Rafah.”

The internationally recognised Palestinian Authority said it represented a global consensus that the war must end, although presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said it did not go far enough because it did not halt fighting in other parts of Gaza.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters: “We call upon the U.N. Security Council to immediately implement this demand by the World Court into practical measures to compel the Zionist enemy to implement the decision.”

Ireland, Spain and Norway announced on Wednesday that they would recognise a Palestinian state on May 28, saying they hoped other Western countries would follow suit, prompting Israel to recall its ambassadors.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the move was aimed at accelerating efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Reuters reported.

“We hope that our recognition and our reasons contribute to other western countries to follow this path because the more we are, the more strength we will have to impose a ceasefire, to achieve the release of the hostages held by Hamas, to relaunch the political process that can lead to a peace agreement,” he said in a speech to the country’s lower house.

Israel launched its war in Gaza in retaliation for an Oct. 7 assault by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies. Israel’s operations in the enclave have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Spain and its allies have spent months lobbying European nations, including France, Portugal, Belgium and Slovenia, to garner support for the recognition of a Palestinian state, Reuters reported.

“Today, Ireland, Norway, and Spain are announcing that we recognise the state of Palestine,” Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris said at a press conference in Dublin.

“Each of us will now undertake whatever national steps are necessary to give effect to that decision.”

He added that Ireland was unequivocal in fully recognising Israel and its right to exist “securely and in peace with its neighbors”, and he called for all hostages in Gaza to be immediately returned.

In Oslo, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, said the only alternative for a political solution between Israelis and Palestinians is “two states living side by side in peace and security.”

Ambassadors recalled

In response to the announcements, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered the immediate return of the Israeli ambassadors to the three countries for consultations and warned of further “severe consequences”.

“I am sending a clear message today: Israel will not be complacent against those who undermine its sovereignty and endanger its security,” he said.

Israel’s foreign ministry said it would also reprimand the Irish, Spanish and Norwegian ambassadors and show them a video of female hostages being held in captivity by Hamas.

Israel argues the only way to achieve Palestinian statehood is through negotiations and that bypassing this process would give Hamas and other militant groups an incentive to use violence, Reuters reported.

Around 144 out of 193 member-states of the United Nations have already taken the step, including most of the global south, Russia, China and India, but only a handful of 27 EU members have so far done so, Sweden being the first in 2014.

The United Kingdom and Australia have indicated in recent months that they could soon follow suit.

Palestinians seek statehood in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as their capital.

Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States, last month vetoed an attempt at United Nations recognition for a Palestinian state, arguing that a two-state solution can only come from direct negotiations between the parties.

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor said on Monday he had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement issued after more than seven months of war in Gaza that he had reasonable grounds to believe the five men “bear criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He said he had applied for an arrest warrant for Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as for Netanyahu. They have overseen Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza since the group’s deadly Oct. 7 raid on Israel.

Khan has also applied for arrest warrants for Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar; Mohammed Al-Masri, the commander-in-chief of the military wing of Hamas who is widely known as Deif; and Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ Political Bureau.

A panel of pre-trial judges will determine whether the evidence supports the arrest warrants. But the court has no means to enforce such warrants, and its investigation into the Gaza war has been opposed by the United States and Israel.

Israel and Palestinian leaders have dismissed allegations of war crimes, and representatives for both sides criticised Khan’s decision.

“I reject with disgust the comparison of the prosecutor in the Hague between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas,” Netanyahu said, calling the move a “complete distortion of reality.”

U.S. President Joe Biden called the legal step “outrageous”, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it could jeopardize negotiations on a hostage deal and ceasefire.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the prosecutor’s decision to request warrants for the three Hamas leaders “equates the victim with the executioner”. Hamas demanded the arrest warrant request for its leaders be canceled.

NETANYAHU BEARS ‘CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY’

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 over alleged war crimes in the Ukraine war, but Monday’s step was the first time Khan has sought to intervene in the conflict in the Middle East.

“Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its population,” Khan said. “That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any state of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.”

He said crimes against humanity allegedly carried out by Israel were part of “a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy.”

“These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day,” he said.

Evidence his office collected showed Israel had systematically deprived civilians of “objects indispensable to human survival” including food, water, medicine and energy, he said. Netanyahu and Gallant bore responsibility, he said, for Israel wilfully causing great suffering and for killing as a war crime.

The Hamas leaders face allegations of bearing responsibility for crimes committed by Hamas including extermination and murder, the taking of hostages, torture, rape and other acts of sexual violence.

“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy,” Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said.

WATERSHED EVENT

The ICC is the world’s first permanent international war crimes court. It 124 member states are obliged to immediately arrest the wanted person if they are on a member state’s territory.

A court of last resort, the ICC steps in only when a state is unwilling or genuinely unable to do so itself. Israel has said alleged war crimes in Gaza are being investigated domestically.

Israel and its main ally the United States are not members of the ICC, along with China and Russia.

Member states have in the past failed to hand over suspects who entered their territory, including Sudanese former President Omar Bashir, wanted since 2005 for war crimes and genocide.

But if warrants are issued against Israeli leaders, court members including nearly all European Union countries could be put in a diplomatically difficult position.

“This is a watershed event in the history of international justice,” said Reed Brody, a veteran war crimes prosecutor. “The ICC has never, in over 21 years of existence, indicted a western official. Indeed, no international tribunal since Nuremberg (against representatives of Nazi Germany) has done so.”

At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health ministry, and aid agencies have also warned of widespread hunger and dire shortages of fuel and medical supplies.

Some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 rampage, according to Israeli tallies.

(Reuters)