An ambiguously worded ruling by the International Court of Justice does not rule out continued military operations in Rafah, Israeli officials said on Sunday. One analyst said Israel’s refutation of claims of “genocide” should end the ICJ’s jurisdiction once and for all.
From its seat in The Hague, the ICJ issued an emergency ruling on Friday, with Lebanese Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the court, calling on Israel to “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.”
Israeli jurist Talia Einhorn, a Professor of Law stated, “By holding that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the Court has turned the Convention on its head. It is a shame that only Julia Sebutinde, the Honorable Vice-President of the ICJ held that, in the absence of any evidence of genocide, the ICJ had no jurisdiction to adjudicate and therefore no jurisdiction to make interim orders. The Court is not competent to micromanage Israel’s fight for survival.”