Israel faced accusations at the World Court on Thursday over the carnage in its war in Gaza, as the first residents returned to the northern area where Israeli forces had begun withdrawing, leaving behind a curtain of total destruction.
Three months of Israeli bombardment have devastated much of the narrow coastal strip, killing more than 23,000 people and driving almost the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes.
Israel’s blockade has sharply limited supplies of food, fuel and medicine, creating what the United Nations has described as a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel says its only option to defend itself is to eliminate Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, whose fighters vowed Israel’s destruction stormed Israeli communities on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.
Israel blames Hamas for all harm to civilians for operating among them, which it denies.
The case, brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accuses Israel of violating the 1948 genocide convention, enacted in the wake of the Holocaust, which mandates all countries to ensure that such crimes never occur. . repeated.
Crowds sit inside the International Court of Justice on the day of a hearing to hear a request for emergency measures by South Africa, which is asking the court to order Israel to end its military action in Gaza on January 11, 2024. REUTERS
Keep up with the news on the Israel-Hamas war and the surge in global antisemitism with The Post’s Israel War Updates, delivered straight to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy compared the lawsuit to a centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theory that accuses Jews of ritually killing babies: “The State of Israel will go to the International Court of Justice to eliminate the senseless blood libel in South Africa, because Pretoria gave political and legal protection to the rapist regime of Hamas.”
Amer Salah, 23, took refuge in a UN school in the southern Gaza Strip after leaving his home, telling Reuters Gazans hope the case will eventually lead to international pressure forcing Israel to end the war.
“Israel has always been a country above the law. They did what they did in Gaza because they knew they could not be punished as long as America was on their side. It is time to change that,” he said.
Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 10, 2024. REUTERS
“We salute South Africa, and we want the war to stop and the court can do that.”
A hearing earlier this week will consider whether the court should order Israel to stop fighting while it investigates the full merits of the case.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country was motivated to bring the case by the “continuing killing of the people of Gaza”, motivated by South Africa’s own history of apartheid.
A Palestinian girl who survived an Israeli attack is carried by her father next to the body of their brother who was killed in an attack in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, January 10, 2024. REUTERS
The United States said Israel must do more to reduce civilian casualties, but described the massacre claims as “baseless”.
“In fact, it is those who violently attack Israel who continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews,” said State Department spokesman Matt Miller.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: “We urge the court to reject all pressure and take a decision to criminalize the Israeli occupation and stop the aggression on Gaza.”
A woman holds a banner during a prayer service in Bo-Kaap for the South African Government’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in Cape Town, South Africa, January 10, 2024. REUTERS
“Failure to achieve justice, failure in the role of the courts, means the occupation will continue its war of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
‘GAZA WILL BE REBUILT. WE WILL RECONTACT OUR DEAD’
Since the New Year, Israel has announced a new phase in the war, saying it will begin withdrawing forces in the northern part of the Gaza Strip where its offensive began in October.
Even so, fighting has only intensified in the south, where Israel continued its ground campaign last month and where almost all Gazans have sought refuge.
The Israeli army says its main campaign is now in the largest city in the south, Khan Younis.
Palestinians gather next to a damaged vehicle as they inspect the site of an Israeli attack in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip January 10, 2024. REUTERS
Relatively quiet conditions in the north have allowed a small number of residents to begin trickling back into the destroyed cities, often finding unmarked moonscapes where houses once stood.
Yousef Fares, a freelance journalist, filmed himself walking through an abandoned area surrounded by charred ruins that was once part of Gaza City, home to nearly a million people.
Israel War Update
Get the most important developments in the region, globally and locally.
A few civilians were passing by, some wobbly on bikes on a track across the mud.
“All the houses you see are destroyed, either completely or partially,” he said.
“We are now in the old Tuffah cemetery which is over 100 years old. All the graves were dug up, they were run over by Israeli bulldozers and tanks. People came from various areas in Gaza City to find the bodies of their sons.”
Abu Ayesh, who returned to an area near Gaza City, told Reuters by telephone that the destruction was “like an earthquake”.
“I told (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu that Gaza will be rebuilt, we will build our houses and we will rebury our dead.”
NETANYAHU: NO INTENT TO RE-OCCUPY GAZA
While Washington has supported Israel’s military campaign justified by its right to self-defense, it has also called on its allies to reduce the war, do more to protect civilians, and preserve the hope of an independent Palestinian state in the future.
This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the region, meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials and leaders as well as Arab leaders, defending Israel’s campaign to eliminate Hamas but urging it to work with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which recognizes Israel.
Israel has been vague about its ultimate intentions but has said it wants control of Gaza’s security forever and will not hand it over to the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but was pushed out of Gaza in 2007 by Hamas.
Some right-wing members of Netanyahu’s coalition government have openly called on Palestinians to leave Gaza and Israel to settle there permanently.
In a post on X, Netanyahu insisted this was not Israel’s goal.
“I want to make a few things clear: Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or evacuating its civilian population,” he wrote. “Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian people, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law.”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
