The UN court orders Israel to halt the Gaza offensive, isolating the US position

A U.N. court’s order that Israel halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has deepened a rift with the United States over a military operation that has drawn growing international condemnation but that U.S. officials, at least for now, see as limited and purposeful description.

Friday’s decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague adds to the pressure facing an increasingly isolated Israel, just days after Norway, Ireland and Spain said they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor of a separate international state The court has requested arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of Hamas.

The Biden administration stands apart from the world community, although it is opposed to a major offensive in Rafah. The government also emphasizes that the steps taken so far by its close ally Israel have not crossed the red lines.

Government officials have so far appeared determined to continue military and political support for Israel following last October’s deadly Hamas attack, while also pressuring their ally to avoid a full-scale military operation in densely populated Rafah .

What we have seen so far in terms of Israeli military operations in that area has been more targeted and limited, and does not involve major military operations in the heart of densely populated urban areas,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a briefing from the White House. week.

But, he added, we now have to see what unfolds from here.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the government’s internal assessment of the situation, said the operation in Gaza has not yet moved into the heart of Rafah, which takes us to the most populous areas.

Earlier this month, the White House announced it was halting a shipment of some 3,500 bombs, including massive 2,000-pound explosives that the Biden administration said would cause civilian deaths. President Joe Biden warned during a CNN interview that if they invade Rafah, I will not provide the weapons that have historically been used to tackle Rafah.

U.S. officials, in pressuring Israel, had suggested that a major operation was a red line that would undermine stalled negotiations on a deal on the return of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and prompt Biden to further roll back what weapons he Israel would send.

But the tone in the White House appeared to take a notable change this week after Sullivan returned from a visit to Israel, where he said he was briefed on refinements in Israel’s plan to root out Hamas in Rafah, and to Saudi Arabia .

During Sullivan’s talks with Netanyahu and other officials during the trip, the Israeli side raised many of Biden’s concerns about his plans for Rafah, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

The official said the administration did not greenlight the Israeli plan, but the change in planning from Israeli officials suggested they were taking Biden’s concerns seriously.

That assessment may provide little comfort to Palestinians still trapped in Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt and the site of a critical crossing for aid. More than 1 million people have sought refuge there in recent months after escaping fighting elsewhere, but around 9,00,000 people have now fled the city.

Israel has brought hundreds of trucks through the other major border crossing, Kerem Shalom, but the UN and aid agencies say Israeli military operations make it dangerous for them to pick up food, water and other supplies for starving Palestinians.

The U.S. Agency for International Development says Gaza needs a steady flow of 600 truckloads a day of food and other aid to reverse the onset of what the heads of USAID and the U.N. World Food Program call famine in the north and prevent it expands to the north. South.

Even as an American pier begins to bring in a small amount of aid by sea, Gaza has received only a fraction of the amount of aid needed since the start of the Israeli offensive.

Leading international humanitarian groups welcomed the International Court of Justice ruling because of the pressure they hoped it would bring. Doctors Without Borders said it was confirmation of how catastrophic the situation for Palestinian civilians in Gaza had become and the desperate need for an immediate increase in humanitarian aid.

There is no practical mechanism to force Israel to comply with the court order, which, in addition to ordering a halt to the offensive, also mandates an increase in humanitarian aid to the region and access to Gaza for war crimes investigators.

Israel showed no signs that it planned to change course after Friday’s ruling. The war in Gaza followed an October 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, about a quarter of them soldiers, while another 250 were captured. At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between fighters and civilians.

The court’s demands go beyond what the US has currently asked of Israel, although Washington has nevertheless indicated that it remains opposed to a more drastic operation in Gaza.

When it comes to Rafah, we have long expressed our concerns about a large-scale military attack on Rafah and the damage it could cause to the civilian population without a clear and credible plan to protect them, Foreign Minister said Anthony. Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Blinken also reiterated that the administration does not believe a major offensive would achieve the results Israel wants to achieve, namely dealing effectively and sustainably with Hamas.

Our concerns about a large-scale military attack in Rafah remain, he said. We have other ways to address Hamas’s challenge, which we believe can be more effective and sustainable.

First print: May 25, 2024 | 11:35 PM IST