The International Court of Justice will announce today whether it will take precautionary measures against Israel

The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) will announce this Friday its decision on imposing precautionary measures on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, while the procedure by which South Africa accuses the Israeli state of “genocidal intentions” towards the Palestinians of the Strip.

He case filed by South Africa on December 29 focuses on Israel’s alleged violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) with its military operations in Gaza and, as noted by the South African legal team, statements by senior Israeli officials demonstrate a ‘genocidal pattern of behaviour’ in his ‘state policy’.

But before addressing the question of whether or not Israel violated that treaty with its attack that began on October 7, following the incursion of the Islamist group Hamas into its territory, the International Court of Justice will rule on the need for precautionary measures to to paralyze hostilities until a decision on the merits of the case, which will take years.

South Africa called for nine measures – including a ceasefire – to “protect the rights of the Palestinian people from further, serious and irreparable harm” and “to ensure that Israel fulfills its obligations not to commit genocide and to prevent and punish genocide.” If enacted, these measures would not constitute a declaration that Israel is committing genocide.

The rulings of the International Court of Justice They are binding, but The court has little means to impose these, and it is up to the will of the states to comply with these decisions. This Court does not try individuals for committing crimes (which the International Criminal Court does, also in The Hague), and limits itself to settling disputes between states about international law, in this case the Genocide Convention.

Israel’s legal team has already warned the International Court of Justice that imposing measures will “put an end to efforts to rescue the hostages” and “give Hamas room to maintain its capabilities, which could pose an even greater risk.” ‘ Moreover, this war, he said, is their “inherent right to defend their citizens.”

“We will restore security in the south and north (of Gaza). No one can stop us: not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil, not anyone else. The Hague’s hypocritical attack on the Jewish state, which emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust, at the instigation of those who came to commit a new Holocaust against the Jews, is a moral low point in history,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

For its part, the Islamic group Hamas He assured on Thursday that he would obey a ceasefire if the International Court of Justice in The Hague decides to do so. “In the event that the court in The Hague decides on a ceasefire, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas will engage… as long as the enemy respects it,” he said in a statement, assuring that he would doing. release the Israeli prisoners in its possession if the occupying state releases the Palestinian prisoners it holds.

“The Zionist enemy must end its 18-year siege of the Gaza Strip and provide all necessary assistance for the relief and reconstruction of the population,” the Palestinian militia concluded in the aforementioned statement.

The Israeli army’s bloody offensive has already resulted in a near massacre 25,900 Palestinians. That same Thursday, attacks on a United Nations Organization for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facility in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, left at least 13 dead and 56 injured, 21 of them seriously.