Court orders Israel to take measures to prevent genocide
According to reports by BBC, 15 out of the 17-member panel in The Hague, Netherlands, have voted in favour of an order that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza and ensure its military does not commit genocidal acts...
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has delivered a majority ruling ordering Israel to take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza.
According to reports by BBC, 15 out of the 17-member panel in The Hague, Netherlands, have voted in favour of an order that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza and ensure its military does not commit genocidal acts.
It also ordered Israel to ensure the preservation of evidence of such acts and that future fact-finding missions will have access to it.
With 16 votes to one, it also ordered Israel to punish those who incite genocide in Gaza.
In reading out the majority interim decision, the court’s president Joan Donoghue noted public comments such as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant saying that its military is fighting “human animals” and vowing it will “eliminate everything”.
The court also ordered Israel to take immediate action to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid in Gaza, and called on Hamas to release hostages it had kidnapped from Israel on Oct 7 last year.
Israel is ordered to submit a report within one month from today on measures it has taken to implement the court’s orders.
Crucially, however, the court’s ruling stopped short of ordering Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza, or making a determination whether genocide had occurred in the Gaza conflict.
BBC quoted Donoghue saying that the decision on the allegation of genocide will come later, and today’s interim ruling does not prejudice the court’s final verdict on the matter. The BBC also said such a decision is not expected for several years.
South Africa had brought the case against Israel on Dec 29 last year, after the latter launched brutal reprisals in Gaza following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct 7 that year.
In doing so, South Africa argued that Israel has violated its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and urged the UN court to take provisional measures to protect Palestinians from further harm.
In immediate response, the New York Times quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing the verdict as “not only false, it’s outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it.”
