The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began public hearings on Thursday stemming from South Africa's recent request for emergency provisional measures to immediately halt Israeli operations under way in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than one million Palestinians were sheltering during the seven-month-long war in the besieged enclave.
Linked to South Africa's ongoing case charging Israel with violating the Genocide Convention, the new request, filed on 10 May, asked the ICJ's 15 judges to order Israel to "immediately withdraw and seize its military operations in the Rafah governate" and open up the enclave to international aid workers and journalists.
South Africa delivered its arguments on Thursday afternoon, and Israel is expected to respond at public hearings on Friday at The Hague-based ICJ, which was established by the UN Charter as the principal judicial organ of the UN.
You can read South Africa's current full request here and watch Thursday's proceedings at the ICJ's Peace Palace in the Netherlands below:
New request calls for 'unimpeded' access to Gaza
Amid a looming famine and deeper deadly Israeli incursions into Gaza, the urgent request has asked the court to order Israel to immediately "ensure and facilitate unimpeded access" to the enclave for UN and other aid officials, fact-finding missions, investigators and journalists.
That measure was requested to allow those officials and reporters "to assess and record conditions on the ground in Gaza and enable the effective preservation and retention of evidence", with Israel ensuring "its military does not act to prevent such access", according to South Africa's application.
South Africa also requested the court to require Israel to submit, within one week of the order, a report on steps taken to implement these new provisional measures.
South Africa: 'Stop the ongoing genocide'
Representing South Africa, Vusimuzi Madonsela, the country's ambassador to the Netherlands, said his country was compelled to return to the court under its obligations under the Genocide Convention "due to the continuing annihilation of the Palestinian people, with over 35,000 now killed and most of Gaza reduced to rubble".
"Despite the short notice of this hearing, South Africa has travelled here today to do what it can to stop the ongoing genocide," he said.
Israel is "breaching the binding orders of this court" and of Security Council resolutions, he said, also referring to ICJ orders in January for provisional measures related to the South Africa v. Israel case for Israel to, among other things, ensure the required aid enters Gaza unimpeded.
Israel's declared 'safe zones' in Gaza are anything but safe
Among a bevy of lawyers and experts presenting South Africa's arguments on Thursday for its newest request, Vaughn Lowe said "the key point today is that Israel's declared aim of wiping Gaza from the map is about to be realised."
"Evidence of appalling crimes and atrocities is literally being destroyed and bulldozed, in effect wiping the slate clean for those who've committed these crimes and making a mockery of justice," he said.
Max du Plessis, a lawyer for South Africa, said Israel's declared "safe zones" are anything but safe.
"There is nothing humanitarian about these humanitarian zones," he said. "Israel's genocide of Palestinians continues through military attacks and man-made starvation."
Current court-ordered provisional measures
The ICJ has delivered several orders for provisional measures on the South Africa v. Israel case, which began in January following South Africa's application on 29 December for the world court to consider its allegations against Israel for contraventions of the Genocide Convention.
The ICJ delivered an order on 26 January for provisional measures, declaring that Palestinians had a right to be protected from acts of genocide and calling on Israel to "take all measures within its power" to prevent such actions and allow the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Read the full text of the order here.
The court delivered additional provisional measures in March, responding to a request from South Africa.
In that decision, the ICJ ordered Israel, "in view of the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of famine and starvation", to take "all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza".
Next steps
The UN's top court will hear Israel's response on Friday.
The ICJ justices will then meet to render a decision on whether or not to issue a fresh order.
Provisional measures are a type of temporary injunction ahead of a final decision on the case, which will likely take years before a judgement is reached. The measures are considered "mandatory for implementation", but the court has no means of enforcing them.
Learn more about the ICJ and the South Africa v. Israel case here:
- UN world court calls for prevention of genocidal acts in Gaza
- Gaza: South Africa levels accusations of 'genocidal conduct' against Israel at world court
- War against Hamas in Gaza is act of self-defence, Israel tells world court
- Explainer: What is the International Court of Justice and why does it matter?
- Explainer: What is the Genocide Convention?
- ICJ's South Africa v. Israel case documents
