Israeli officials expect ICJ to issue judicial order against Tel Aviv over Gaza war

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli officials expect that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue a judicial order against Israel in a lawsuit filed by South Africa accusing Tel Aviv of genocide in the Gaza Strip, according to local media.

"There is a very real chance that the world court will agree to South Africa's demands and will issue some kind of injunction against Israel,” Haaretz newspaper said citing unnamed Israeli officials.

The officials, however, said that the ICJ “is not expected to call for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.”

According to Haaretz, the expected judicial order will entail establishing an independent inquiry in response to South Africa’s genocide lawsuit.

“The court can instruct Israel to allow humanitarian aid in the Strip, to establish an independent inquiry or to allow displaced Palestinians to return to northern Gaza,” the officials said.

South Africa filed on Dec. 29 an application instituting proceedings against Israel before the ICJ.

The African country suspended relations with Israel on Nov. 21, in response to its army’s intensified attacks on the Gaza Strip. And later on Dec. 29, it filed a petition with the ICJ to initiate genocidal proceedings against Tel Aviv.

Israel has pounded the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas in which Tel Aviv says killed around 1,200 people.

At least 23,357 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 59,410 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced, while all of the population is food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and ⁠less than half of the aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio