The court also ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid, and said Israel must provide access to the besieged territory for investigators and report back on its progress within a month.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to stop its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The top United Nations court said the humanitarian situation in Rafah had “deteriorated further” since its previous order for Israel to improve it, adding that what was happening in the besieged Palestinian territory was “disastrous”.
It comes after South Africa put in an emergency request to the ICJ for it to order Israel to stop its Rafah assault.
The ICJ president Nawaf Salam said in The Hague: “The state of Israel shall… immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The court also ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid, and said Israel must provide access to the territory for investigators and report back on its progress within a month.
The order was handed down a week after it was requested by South Africa, which in January formally accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in a hearing at the UN court.
Israel, which claims its military operations in Gaza are in self-defence and targeted at Hamas fighters, has vehemently denied the accusations, with the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling them “false, outrageous and disgusting”.
It insisted its Rafah campaign will not “lead to the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population”, adding it would continue to allow aid to enter Gaza “in accordance with the law”.
Israel launched its assault on Rafah this month, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee a city that had become a refuge to around half of the population’s 2.3 million people.
The ICJ is the highest UN body for hearing disputes between states, and its rulings are final and binding but have been ignored in the past.
No enforcement powers
The court has no enforcement powers and Israel has signalled it will not comply with the latest ICJ order, which was adopted by a panel of 15 judges from around the world in a 13-2 vote, opposed only by judges from Uganda and Israel.
In response to the judgment, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “Those who demand that the State of Israel stop the war, demand that it decree itself to cease to exist. We will not agree to that. If we lay down our weapons, the enemy will reach the beds of our children and women throughout the country.”
South Africa has welcomed the latest ruling, with Zane Dangor, director general of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, saying the order was “ground-breaking as it is the first time that explicit mention is made for Israel to halt its military action in any area of Gaza”.