Palestinian children survey a series of destroyed apartment buildings in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo by Shareef Sarhan/United Nations/Flickr.

Seven weeks have now passed since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that South Africa’s accusation that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza was “plausible.” A final verdict may take years. But on January 26, the ICJ imposed a number of “provisional measures” aimed at “preserving … the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide” (ICJ report, ¶59).

By a majority of 15 judges to two, the world’s highest court instructed Israel among other things to take “all measures within its power” to prevent:

Noting the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip” (¶72) in which “an unprecedented 93 percent of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger” (¶48), the judges further ordered Israel to:

In this case, the majority was 16 to one, with even the judge Israel appointed as its representative for this case concurring.

As international human rights lawyer Akila Radhakrishnan observed, while the court did not mandate a ceasefire (it could hardly do so when it has no jurisdiction over Hamas as a non-state actor), it is difficult to see how these objectives could be achieved without Israel “halting or at least drastically curtailing its military operations.”

Responding to the ICJ judgment, Benjamin Netanyahu fumed that “the very claim that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians is not just false, it is outrageous, and the court’s willingness to discuss it at all is a mark of disgrace that will not be erased for generations.” Other senior Israeli politicians dismissed not only South Africa’s charge of genocide but even the court itself as “antisemitic”—a term that is now bandied about so prodigally that it is in danger of losing all purchase on reality.

Though ICJ rulings are supposed to be binding on all UN member states, Israel has to all intents and purposes ignored these orders and carried on its military campaign in Gaza regardless.

By March 11, the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza had risen from the 25,700 cited in the ICJ report (¶46) to 31,112, with a further 72,760 wounded. These are confirmed deaths of named victims, compiled by Gaza’s health ministry. The IDF’s degradation of Gaza’s health services—as of March 9, Israeli forces had destroyed 155 health institutions and rendered 32 out of the strip’s 36 hospitals completely or partially out of service, killed over 400 health care workers, and abducted over 110 others—has made reliable death counts increasingly difficult, and the true figure is likely to be substantially higher.

If we include people missing and presumed buried under the rubble, the total rises to over 39,000. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently admitted that over 25,000 women and children alone have been killed in Gaza since October 7. According to the UN, the Israeli offensive has killed more children (12,300) “in just four months of fighting than in four years of armed conflicts around the world combined.”

Genocide is not only measured in numbers of deaths but in the deliberate creation of “conditions of life calculated to bring about [the group’s] physical destruction in whole or in part.” As of March 5, Israeli actions had completely destroyed 106,000 Gazan homes and partially destroyed 250,900 others, as well as destroying or damaging 2,120 industrial facilities, 432........

© Canadian Dimension