ICJ interim ruling fails to stop or slow down Israel’s killing machine in Gaza

By Press TV Staff Writer

Even though it stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the much-anticipated interim ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday ordered the Israeli regime to prevent all acts that constitute genocide.

Israel must “take all measures possible to prevent acts under Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention in relation to Palestinians in Gaza,” which includes killings and inflicting physical or material harm, stated the ruling.

The Tel Aviv regime, it further noted, must ensure its military does not carry out any of the above actions and must prevent and punish “the direct and public incitement to commit genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.”

Two days after the ruling was announced by the top UN court based in The Hague, the genocidal war perpetuated by Israel on Gaza continues and Palestinians continue to be killed in cold blood and through deliberate starvation.

So far, according to the Gaza health ministry, 26,257 people have been killed and at least 64,797 others wounded in Gaza, most of them children and women. Many more remain trapped under the rubble, unaccounted for.

In the last 24 hours alone, Israeli regime forces reportedly killed at least 174 Palestinians and injured 310 others in the besieged coastal strip that has been rendered “uninhabitable”, according to the United Nations.

Israeli regime’s attacks were in the last 24 hours reported in al-Bureij, Khan Younis, al-Maghazi, Shuja’iyya, al-Masdar, Beit Lahia, and east of Rafah.

Wafa news agency reported devastating strikes targeting residential houses and makeshift tents where internally displaced people have been sheltering in the heavily crowded Rafah, as well as Khan Younis.

The report said several dead bodies and wounded were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following intense Israeli airstrikes targeting several homes in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also reported that Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis city remained under the siege of Israeli forces on Saturday, with many dead bodies brought there.

“For the third day in a row, Al-Amal Hospital suffers from repeated and numerous attacks and a siege after the occupation forces entered the surrounding areas, which hampers the work of ambulances and relief teams and puts them at high risk,” the report stated.

“The Internally displaced people also face the risk of direct targeting by the occupation forces and the drones which are deployed densely in the skies of Khan Yunis Governorate.”

On Friday, hours after the ICJ ruling came in, the Euro-Med human rights group reported the killing of two young brothers by Israeli snipers as they tried to evacuate the All-Amal Hospital.

“Euro-Med Monitor documented the arbitrary execution and horrific premeditated murder of two brothers—one of whom was a child—by an Israeli sniper in front of their parents and other family members,” the rights group said in a report.

 “The brothers were shot as they were preparing to be forcibly removed from their home in the neighborhood of Al-Amal, located in the west of Khan Yunis, which witnessed several other Israeli massacres and crimes.”

Mixed bag: ICJ ruling highlights isolation of Israeli regime, limitations of UN power

The long-awaited ruling by the ICJ against Israel underlines the growing isolation of the regime while also highlighting the limitations of the authority of UN organs.

Nahed Barbakh, 14, was holding a white flag when he was shot by Israeli snipers at least three times, resulting in his death. Ramez, 20, was shot in the head as he tried to rescue his younger brother.

On the same day, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) denounced the Israeli regime for pushing 85 percent of the Gaza population into a tiny area and bombing them there.

“I have very grave concerns that these chaotic and mass evacuation orders are ineffective in ensuring the safety of Palestinian civilians, instead placing them in increasingly vulnerable, dangerous, situations,” Ajith Sunghay, OHCHR’s director in the occupied Palestinian territories, said.

In the latest, more than 10 countries have suspended funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has sparked a massive outcry from human rights and refugee organizations.

“Suspension of funds threatens humanitarian work in the region, especially in Gaza,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement on Saturday, terming it a “collective punishment.”

The countries that have cut the funding include the United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Scotland, which experts say makes them directly complicit in the genocide and humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.

"The day after @ICJ concluded that Israel is plausibly committing Genocide in Gaza, some states decided to defund UNRWA, collectively punishing millions of Palestinians at the most critical time, and most likely violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention," wrote Francesca Albanese, the former UN official on her X page, formerly Twitter. 

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