ICJ orders Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah

On 10 May 2024, South Africa returned to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to seek an urgent order from the court for the protection of the Palestinian people in Gaza from grave and irreparable violations of their rights under the Genocide Convention, as a result of Israel’s ongoing military assault on Rafah.

"The #ICJ delivers its Order on the request of South Africa of 10 May 2024 for the indication of additional provisional measures and the modification of previous provisional measures in the case #SouthAfrica v. #Israel," the ICJ post on X said on Friday.

"More than 900,000 Palestinians have been displaced by fighting in just two weeks and now lack shelter, food, water and medicine," the ICJ president Nawaf Salam said in today's meeting.

In its ruling, the ICJ said that ‘Israel must immediately hold its military offensive’, adding that "Israel’s evacuation efforts are not sufficient."

It further said that the humanitarian situation in Rafah is ‘disastrous’. 

It continued to say that "Israel must ensure access of investigators to Gaza." 

According to Al Jazeera, the ICJ asked Israel to report to the court in a month. 

ICJ also said that Israel’s evacuation efforts are not sufficient.