Tajani receives the ANP Prime Minister at the Farnesina: “Italy’s bridging role”. Mustafa: “Fieri’s visit to Europe starts from Rome”
There UN Supreme Court orders Israel to “immediately” halt military assault on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, stating that the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory is “disastrous”. The ruling, read aloud by Judge Nawaf Salam at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, was issued in response to an urgent request made by South Africa. A sentence rejected by the Jewish State which continued its raids yesterday, in particular on the Shaboura refugee camp, in the center of Rafah as reported by the BBC. The British network quoted an activist who was in the nearby Kuwaiti hospital and spoke of terrifying explosions and thick columns of smoke on the Shaboura field. The Times of Israel also relaunched the news from Palestinian sources who reported a massive Israeli air raid in the Shaboura area.
The sentence
”The Court is not convinced that the evacuation efforts and related measures that Israel claims to have undertaken to enhance the security of civilians in the Gaza Strip, and in particular those recently displaced from the Rafah governorate, are sufficient to alleviate the ‘immense risk to which the Palestinian population is exposed due to the military offensive in Rafah,” declared the president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague Nawaf Salam. ”Israel – he added – must take effective measures to guarantee free access to the Gaza Strip to any commission of inquiry or investigative body appointed by the competent bodies of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide”.
The Court ordered the Israeli authorities to appear in court within a month to report on the progress made on the measures indicated today. So far, the judge stressed, the provisional measures adopted by Israel after the previous ICJ verdict on Gaza have not fully addressed the consequences of the situation. South Africa justified its request to the ICJ by arguing that the Court’s previous measures in relation to the war of Gaza were inadequate.
Israel’s reaction
Israel rejected the ruling: “The charges of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague are false, outrageous and morally repugnant,” the head of the National Security Council and the spokesperson said in a joint statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Israel is “obliged to continue fighting to return its hostages and ensure the safety of its citizens, at any time and place, including in Rafah,” said Israeli war cabinet minister and National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, in a note released following a telephone conversation with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, after the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Rafah. “We will continue to act according to international law in Rafah and wherever we operate, and we will make every effort to avoid harming the civilian population. Not because of the Hague Tribunal, but above all because of who we are,” he added. ”Stopping the war against Hamas”, as requested by the International Court of Justice, would be equivalent to ”collective suicide”, declared Israeli government spokesman David Mencer speaking to the BBC. “There is no power in the world that can push us to commit public suicide, because that is what it is about if we stop our war against Hamas,” Mencer said.
The Palestinian Authority, for its part, has asked to increase international pressure on Israel following the decision of the International Court of Justice. The international community should force Israel to implement the decision, he said in a statement published in Ramallah on Friday. The Authority believes that the Court’s decision confirms the view that Israel is committing war crimes.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the International Court of Justice’s decisions were “binding” and he “expected the parties to duly comply with the Court’s order,” his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said. “In accordance with the Statute of the Court, the Secretary-General will promptly transmit to the Security Council notification of provisional measures ordered by the Court,” he said.
While the rulings of the UN’s top court are binding, it has no way to enforce compliance. However, it can ask the United Nations Security Council to act.
Tajani receives ANP Prime Minister Mustafa
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani met with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of the Palestinian National Authority, Mohammed Mustafa. “Italy, thanks to its balanced positions, wants to play a bridging role and will work with ever greater intensity to bring this phase of the military conflict in Gaza to an end. This includes the Palestinian Prime Minister’s visit to Rome, which is the first in Europe since he took office,” commented Tajani. “I informed Mustafa – he added – that the Government has arranged new funding for the Palestinian population, for a total of 35 million euros, in addition to what has already been done in response to the crisis”.
“We are very proud that our visit to Europe started from Italy. I thank the Italian Government and Minister Tajani for the invitation. We appreciate, Minister Tajani, his commitment to peace and to the political process,” Mustafa told Tajani in their meeting at the Farnesina.
