The United Nations’ top court is expected to issue an order on Friday on Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, potentially ordering Israel to halt the operation.
The court has no way to enforce its orders, but the case, brought by South Africa, has put increasing international pressure on Israel to show more restraint in its military campaign in Gaza.
Last week, as part of its defense at the U.N.’s International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel characterized its military operation in Rafah, which lies on Gaza’s border with Egypt, as “limited and localized.” It argued that the court’s judges should not restrict Israel’s actions in Gaza. Lawyers for South Africa argued that Israel’s Rafah offensive was “the last step in the destruction of Gaza and the Palestinian people.”
Israel’s government has accused South Africa of acting as a “legal arm of Hamas” by filing the case in The Hague and it says it is not bound by the court’s rulings.
United Nations vehicles rumble along a deserted road in south Lebanon, past abandoned villages, destroyed houses...
More than a dozen empty flatbed trucks from Gaza rumble through the opening in the massive...
