LAST UPDATE | 7 Mar
ISRAEL HAS REBUKED South Africa for its urgent petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday that called on the court to issue extra emergency orders to Israel as part of the genocide case against it.
The South African petition urged the ICJ judges to modify existing orders (provisional measures) “in light of the new facts and changes in the situation in Gaza — particularly the situation of widespread starvation — brought about by the continuing egregious breaches” of the Genocide Convention.
With famine “almost inevitable” in Gaza, according to the UN, and Israeli forces continuing to prevent the free flow of aid into the territory, South Africa requested the new orders be issued without a hearing due to the “extreme urgency of the situation” and in order to “ensure the safety and security of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, including over a million children”.
Israel has responded to yesterday’s request by once again labelling the South Africa “the legal arm of Hamas” and accused it of exploiting the ICJ.
“South Africa continues to act as the legal arm of Hamas in an attempt to undermine Israel’s inherent right to defend itself and its citizens, and to release all of the hostages,” foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said in a statement.
South Africa made a similar request in mid-February in light of the planned Israeli invasion of the southern Gazan city of Rafah. The ICJ rejected that request saying that the character of the conflict had not changed sufficiently to make new provisional measures necessary.
The court issued orders against Israel in mid-January, instructing it to abide by its commitments under the Genocide Convention.
US President Joe Biden has urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan with Israel before Ramadan begins, which could be as early as Sunday depending on the sighting of the crescent moon.
However, mediators in Egypt have struggled to overcome tough obstacles in their attempts to negotiate a pause.
A senior Hamas official confirmed today that the group’s delegation had left Cairo for consultations in Doha, Qatar, while voicing dissatisfaction with Israel’s responses so far.
“We are awaiting the final official response from the enemy (Israel),” said the official, who was involved in negotiations in Cairo but declined to be named.
“The initial (Israeli) responses do not meet the minimum requirements related to the permanent cessation of hostilities” or other Hamas conditions for a ceasefire, he added.
Hamas has been insisting on a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced people to their homes and allowing humanitarian aid in and reconstruction to begin in the territory.
“We will not compromise on that which ensures the safety of our people,” the official said.
Another Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told AFP that the fate of negotiations now depended on Washington.
“It is now in Washington’s hands whether it wants to pressure (Israeli premier Benjamin) Netanyahu and his government to reach an agreement,” Mardawi said.
“If Israel is serious and does not procrastinate, it is possible to reach a ceasefire before the start of Ramadan,” he added.
At a conference in Tel Aviv, US ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said: “The differences are being narrowed. It’s not yet an agreement. Everyone’s looking towards Ramadan, which is coming close. I can’t tell you that it will be successful, but it is not yet the case that it is broken down.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a news conference in Beijing: “It is a tragedy for humankind and a disgrace for civilisation that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian disaster cannot be stopped.”
China, historically sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, has been calling for a ceasefire since the conflict began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on 7 October.
“The international community must act urgently, making an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities an overriding priority, and ensuring humanitarian relief an urgent moral responsibility,” Wang said.
At a Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting yesterday evening, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he was extremely concerned about the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
He told the meeting that the humanitarian situation is “shocking” and described it as the worst humanitarian crisis he has ever seen.
Martin welcomed the EU Commission decision on funding for tje United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), noting that Canada has also announced it is resuming funding.
He also told the meeting that Ireland’s initial stance assisted in funding being restored by other countries.
Some countries paused their funding to UNWRA following allegations of staff involvement in the 7 October attack.
The conflict has reduced vast stretches of Gaza to a wasteland of gutted buildings and rubble and sparked a humanitarian disaster for its 2.4 million people.
The health ministry in Gaza yesterday said that 20 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration, at least half of them children.
Only limited aid has reached Gaza’s north, where the UN’s World Food Programme has warned that hunger has reached “catastrophic levels” in northern Gaza, where aid has been limited.
“Children are dying of hunger-related diseases and suffering severe levels of malnutrition,” the WFP said.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, one of the latest victims was a 15-year-old girl who died at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said “the famine in northern Gaza has reached lethal levels” and could claim thousands of lives unless Gaza receives more aid and medical supplies.
Gazans were waiting to collect bags of flour outside a UN refugee agency office in the southern city of Rafah, now home to nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by the conflict.
Gaza’s Hamas government media office said today that Israel had returned dozens of bodies that had been exhumed from graves in the besieged territory in recent weeks.
Israeli forces have on several occasions taken bodies from Gaza to Israel for examinations as they look for hostages seized during the 7 October attacks.
AFP journalists have previously witnessed the reburial of bodies which Gaza officials said had been exhumed by Israeli forces in November, December and January.
The 47 bodies sent back by Israel today “have been transferred to Al-Najjar Hospital” in Rafah, in southern Gaza, the besieged territory’s crossings and borders authority said in a statement.
A separate statement from the Gaza government’s media office said they would be “buried in a recently established mass grave” near Rafah.
“The bodies were seized and transferred to Israel under the pretext of examination and verification” to ensure they were not those of hostages held in Gaza, the government statement said.
Since the start of the war, Israeli officials have exhumed “hundreds” of bodies from graves at hospitals in the Gaza Strip, it said.
The Israeli army told AFP it was looking into reports about the latest group of returned bodies.
Includes reporting by David Mac Redmond and © AFP 2024
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say