‘We will not commit genocide’ — Israeli official claims Rafah offensive is not banned by the ICJ
Israel considers that an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt its military offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza allows room for some military action there, Israeli officials said.
In an emergency ruling in the case accusing Israel of genocide, ICJ judges on Friday ordered Israel to immediately halt its assault on Rafah, where Israel says it is hunting Hamas fighters.
“What they are asking us is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide,” said Tzachi Hanegbi, who is Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser.
Asked yesterday whether the Rafah offensive would continue, Hanegbi said: “According to international law, we have the right to defend ourselves — and the evidence is that the court is not preventing us from continuing to defend ourselves.”
The ICJ, based in The Hague, did not immediately comment on his remarks.
Another Israeli official pointed to the phrasing of the ruling by the ICJ, depicting it as conditional.
“The order in regard to the Rafah operation is not a general order,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Reading out the ruling, the ICJ president said the situation in Gaza had deteriorated since the court last ordered Israel to take steps to improve it, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order.
“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,” Salam said.
That wording does not rule out all military action, the Israeli official claimed.
“We have never, and we will not, conduct any military action in Rafah or elsewhere which may inflict any conditions of life to bring about the destruction of the civilian population in Gaza, not in whole and not in part,” the official said.
The court has no means to enforce its orders, but the case is a sign of Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation. However Israel has pressed on with its offensive since the ICJ ruling.
Nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, and much of Gaza has been devastated. About 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage on October 7.
Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded yesterday in the Syrian capital of Damascus, which is home to several diplomatic missions, killing one person. The area houses the Iranian consulate, destroyed last month in a strike blamed on Israel.
The attack at the time killed seven people including two Iranian generals and a member of Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah. This triggered a direct Iranian military assault on Israel for the first time, sparking fears of a regionwide war.
Lebanon-based Hezbollah and the IDF have traded cross-border fire on an almost daily basis since October.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, and more than 70 civilians. Israel says 15 soldiers and 10 of its civilians have so far been killed in the clashes.