Israel asked the International Court of Justice to reject a request submitted by the South African government two days ago to use its full authority to stop the military operation that Israel plans to launch in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

In documents published by the International Court of Justice on Thursday, Israel said that the emergency measures issued three weeks ago already cover “the situation of hostilities in Gaza as a whole,” and the court must reject South Africa’s request.

The Israeli army intends to expand the scope of its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to include the city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge to escape the Israeli aggression on the north and center of the Strip.

Last month, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take all measures in its power to prevent its forces from committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as part of a lawsuit filed by South Africa.

Israel denied all accusations of genocide in its war on the Gaza Strip. It is not yet clear when the judges will make a decision on the new request submitted by South Africa, or whether they will call for additional hearings to consider it.

Israel launched an aggression against the Gaza Strip, which left tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure, which led to Tel Aviv appearing before the International Court of Justice to be tried on charges of “genocide” for the first time in its history.

Determining whether Israel is indeed violating the Genocide Convention with its military campaign will likely take months, if not years.

Source: Reuters