Closing summary
Here’s a recap of the latest developments
Judges at the top United Nations (UN) court ordered Israel on Friday to halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Reading out a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or world court, the body’s president, Nawaf Salam, said provisional measures ordered by the court in March did not fully address the situation in Gaza now, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order. “Israel must immediately halt its military offensive” in Rafah, he said.
After the ruling, South Africa said “the order by the world court is groundbreaking”. The South Africa international relations department said: “This order is binding and Israel has to adhere to it.” South Africa added that it would be approaching the UN security council with Friday’s ICJ order.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday welcomed the ICJ order that Israel halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but said he remained concerned the UN security council had not succeeded in reducing human suffering in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the decision on Friday from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), saying it represents an international consensus to end the war on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Friday rejected South Africa’s allegations of genocide by Israel, calling them “false and outrageous”, and said its campaign in Rafah has not and will not “lead to the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population”. Netanyahu’s office said it would continue to allow aid to enter Gaza “in accordance with the law” in a joint statement released along with the Israeli foreign ministry.
Hamas welcomed the ICJ decision on Rafah but said it is not enough and urged an end to Israel’s offensive on all of Gaza. Hamas called on the UN security council to implement the ICJ decision.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for failing to draw a connection between its demand for an end to the fighting with a demand to return Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Lapid, normally a fierce critic of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the court’s failure to link the two issues was “a moral collapse and a moral disaster”.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Friday that the EU has to choose between respecting the EU’s support for international institutions or its support for Israel. “What is going to be the answer to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that has been issued today, what is going to be our position. We will have to choose between our support to international institutions of the rule of law or our support to Israel,” he said at an event in Florence after the ICJ ruling.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said that after the world court ruling, those who demand that Israel stop the war are “demanding that it should decide to cease to exist”. He added: “Israel will not agree to that.” Meanwhile, Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted on X: “The order of the antisemitic court in The Hague should have only one answer – the occupation of Rafah, the increase of military pressure and the crushing of Hamas, until the complete victory in the war is achieved.”
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said that Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “again … exposes Israel’s war crimes in Gaza”. In a social media post on X, he wrote: “And once again, the Israeli Govt reacts with disdain to Int’l law, refusing to heed the court’s orders.”
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said Israel would continue its “just and necessary” war against Hamas to return its hostages and ensure its security after the ICJ ordered it to halt its operation in Rafah. “The State of Israel is committed to continue fighting to return its hostages and promise the security of its citizens – wherever and whenever necessary – including in Rafah,” he said in a statement.
Residents and Palestinian media reported a series of strikes hitting roads and houses in the Shaboura neighbourhood in central Rafah shortly after the ICJ ruling was read out in the Hague. On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it carried out airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. Citing residents and medics in Rafah, Reuters reported that Israeli warplanes bombed targets.
The bodies of three more hostages have been recovered from the northern Gaza Strip overnight, the IDF said. Orión Hernández Radoux, 30, Hanan Yablonka, 42, and Michel Nisenbaum, 59, were kidnapped from the Mefalsim area and, according to the Israeli military in comments reported by the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post, were killed on 7 October. Until recently, there had been no information as to their status and they were believed to be alive.
Israeli forces intensified their strikes on Gaza with heavy fighting reported in Jabalia in the north and tanks pushing further into Rafah in the south. Medics said at least five Palestinians had been killed when houses were hit in Jabalia and more were believed to be trapped under rubble, but that the area could not be reached due to the intensity of the bombardment. In Rafah, residents reported explosions and smoke rising in the distance as tanks advanced further into the eastern district of Jenina.
Egypt and the US have agreed to temporarily send humanitarian aid to the UN in Gaza via Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, an agreement resulting from “the difficult humanitarian situation of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the lack of means of life in the Strip, and the lack of fuel needed for hospitals and bakeries”, the Egyptian presidency said. Only 906 truckloads of humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip since 7 May, after Israel began its military operation in Rafah, according to figures from the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha).
More than 200 staff members of EU institutions and agencies have signed a letter expressing “growing concern” over the union’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, arguing that it runs contrary to its core values and aim of promoting peace. The letter, signed by 211 people in their personal capacity as citizens and addressed to the EU’s top three officials, begins by condemning the 7 October attacks “in the strongest terms”.
Iran’s military said the helicopter carrying late President Ebrahim Raisi caught fire soon after it crashed into a mountain and there was no sign it had been attacked. The statement from the general staff of the armed forces in charge of investigating the crash was read on state television late on Thursday. The statement did not lay blame for the crash but said more details would come after further investigation.
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The European Union (EU) is studying whether it could play a role monitoring the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt after the war ends, according to officials.
“We received demarches from different parties including Israel whether we could study the possibility” of reopening an EU mission that was suspended after Hamas took control of Gaza, AFP cited a high-ranking EU official as saying. The official added:
Obviously this would not be in the current circumstances, not in war circumstances. We are talking about the future.
A European diplomat cautioned that the EU was still at the “very beginning of the possible process” towards launching the mission, it said.
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