Palestinian forces and factions demanded the implementation of the decision issued by the International Court of Justice yesterday regarding the Israeli attack on Rafah Governorate, while Israel responded to the decision with violent bombing of the governorate.
The Palestinian national and Islamic forces warned against any formula to circumvent the court’s decision, calling for action to withdraw the occupation from the Rafah crossing and re-operate it as a Palestinian-Egyptian crossing.
She considered that opening the crossings is an urgent need in light of the worsening humanitarian crisis, stressing that talking about bringing aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing through the United Nations is a small step that does not end the humanitarian tragedy resulting from the closure of the crossings.
Court decision
Yesterday, Friday, the International Court of Justice – at the request of South Africa – ordered Israel to immediately stop its military attack and any other hostilities in Rafah.
Court President Nawaf Salam said that Israel did not respond to concerns about its military attack, and that it must open all land crossings into the Gaza Strip, especially the Rafah crossing.
The decision was met with denunciation and denunciation from Israel, and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an emergency meeting and claimed that South Africa’s allegations were false and disgusting, as he described it.
On the other hand, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that the court’s decisions are binding for the parties concerned.
Hamas
In a separate statement, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) welcomed the court’s decision and urged the occupation to “stop all measures that lead to genocide.”
The movement added that it expected the court to issue a decision to stop the aggression and genocide in the entire Gaza Strip, and not just in Rafah Governorate, noting that what is happening in the northern Gaza Strip and other governorates is no less criminal and dangerous than what is happening in Rafah.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
In turn, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine welcomed the court’s decision, calling for Israel to be obligated to implement the decision on the ground, in the entire Gaza Strip.
The Front said in a statement: “This advanced position will not see the light of day if it is not transformed into binding mechanisms for the occupation to implement it on the ground, with the aim of stopping its comprehensive aggression against the Gaza Strip in light of its insistence on continuing crimes.”
The Front stressed that “the new decision by the International Court of Justice must contribute to further isolation of this rogue Zionist entity that does not comply.”
Islamic jihad
As for the Islamic Jihad movement, it said that the decision “although it does not meet the aspirations of our people to stop the aggression against the entire sector, and does not provide for the opening of crossings and the entry of aid, it exposes the Zionist entity at the legal level.”
Israeli response
In response to the decision, the occupation began violent bombardment in Rafah and various areas of the Gaza Strip, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to hold an emergency meeting, to which the Ministers of the War Council, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, were not invited, to discuss the response to the court’s decision.
But National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir described the International Court of Justice as “anti-Semitic,” while another extremist minister, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, confirmed that Tel Aviv would not accept the International Court of Justice’s ruling ordering it to stop its military operation in the city of Rafah.
As for Gantz, he claimed that Tel Aviv would continue fighting in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, in accordance with international law, according to what was reported by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
Since May 6, Israel has been launching a ground attack on Rafah, and the next day it seized the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, closing it to the crossing of the wounded and already scarce humanitarian aid.
The attack also caused the displacement of nearly a million Palestinians from Rafah, according to the United Nations, after the city contained 1.5 million, including 1.4 million displaced people from other parts of the Strip.
The war on Gaza, which has been ongoing for 8 months, left more than 116,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
