Fighting in south Gaza rages on after ICJ ruling
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Thousands of civilians were trapped in southern Gaza by bombardment and fighting between israeli troops and Hamas fighters on saturday, a day after the united Nations’ top court ruled that israel must prevent genocidal acts.
Growing alarm has focused on Khan Younis, the biggest city in Gaza’s south, where its two main hospitals were barely functioning under the weight of the relentless bombardment and the press of thousands in need.
Witnesses reported more overnight strikes on the city, the current epicenter of Israel’s assault on Gaza, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said some of the dead and wounded had been taken to the barely functioning Al-Amal hospital.
The strikes came after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in its war against Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that controls Gaza.
The court, which has virtually no enforcement power, stopped short of calling for an end to the fighting, but also said in its ruling that Israel must facilitate “urgently needed” humanitarian assistance.
“This is the first time the world has told Israel that it is out of line,” said Maha Yasin, a 42-yearold displaced Palestinian woman in Gaza. “What Israel did to us in Gaza for four months has never happened in history.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the case as “outrageous.”
Israel’s relentless bombardment and siege of the Palestinian territory began soon after Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attacks on the country’s south that resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally of official Israeli figures.
The militants also seized about 250 hostages, and Israel says about 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.
Israel has vowed to crush Hamas, and Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Israeli military offensive has killed at least 26,083 people, about 70 percent of them women and children.
Hospital services ‘collapse’
Fierce fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters has raged for days around Khan Younis, forcing tens of thousands to flee further south to the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
With a humanitarian crisis growing in Khan Younis and northern areas of Gaza, UN agencies say most of the estimated 1.7 million Palestinians displaced by the war are crowded into Rafah.
At Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, the largest in the besieged city, Doctors Without Borders said surgical capacity was “virtually nonexistent.”
The international medical aid organization said in a news release that medical services at the hospital had “collapsed” and the few staff who remained “must contend with very low supplies that are insufficient to handle mass casualty events.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter, that 350 patients and 5,000 people displaced by the fighting remained at the hospital and that fighting in the vicinity continued.
He said the Nasser Hospital was “running out of food, fuel and supplies” and called for an immediate ceasefire so they could be replenished.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli tanks were targeting Al-Amal, another of the few remaining medical facilities in the city, and that it was “under siege with heavy gunfire.”
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of having tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and of using the medical facilities as command centers.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, accused the WHO this week of collusion with Hamas by ignoring Israeli evidence of the group’s “military use” of Gaza hospitals.
Tedros rejected the accusation, saying it could “endanger our staff who are risking their lives to serve the vulnerable.”
Diplomatic relations sour
Relations between Israel and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) soured after the agency said tanks had shelled one of its shelters in Khan Younis on Wednesday, killing 13 people.
UNRWA said on Friday it had sacked several employees accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attacks.
The UN Security Council will meet on Wednesday to discuss the ICJ’s ruling, the council’s presidency announced.
The ruling in The Hague was based on an urgent application brought by South Africa, long a supporter of the Palestinian cause, but a broader judgment on whether genocide has been committed could take years.