RAFAH, Palestinian Territories — Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, on Saturday, despite an order from the United Nations' top court for it to "immediately halt" its military offensive in the territory's southernmost city.
In a case brought by South Africa alleging that the Israeli military operation amounts to "genocide," the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive and demanded the immediate release of hostages still held by Palestinian militants.
The Hague-based ICJ, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, also instructed Israel to keep open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which Israel closed before sending troops and tanks into the besieged city and crossing earlier this month.
Israel gave no indication it was preparing to change course in Rafah, insisting the court had got it wrong.
"Israel has not and will not carry out military operations in the Rafah area that create living conditions that could cause the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part," National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a joint statement with Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Hamas, the Iran-backed Islamist group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, welcomed the ICJ ruling on Rafah but criticized its decision to exclude the rest of the Palestinian territory from the order.
In spite of the ICJ ruling, Israel carried out strikes on Gaza on Saturday morning as fighting raged between the army and Hamas' armed wing.
Palestinian witnesses and Agence France-Presse (AFP) teams reported Israeli strikes in Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.
"We hope that the court's decision will put pressure on Israel to end this war of extermination because there is nothing left here," said Oum Mohammad Al-Ashqa, a Palestinian woman from Gaza City who was displaced to Deir al-Balah by the war.
Mohammed Saleh, also interviewed by AFP in the central Gazan city, said: "Israel is a state that considers itself above the law. Therefore, I do not believe that the shooting or the war will stop other than by force."
Stop at onceIn its ruling, the ICJ said Israel must "immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
It ordered Israel to allow UN-mandated investigators "unimpeded access" to Gaza to look into the genocide allegations.
It instructed Israel to open the Rafah crossing for the "unhindered provision at scale" of humanitarian aid and also called for the "immediate and unconditional release" of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The Gaza war broke out after the October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures shows.
The militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,857 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, data from the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry showed.
The Israeli military said on Friday the bodies of three hostages —Israeli Chanan Yablonka, Brazilian-Israeli Michel Nisenbaum and French-Mexican Orion Hernandez Radoux — were recovered in Gaza's north.
Since launching its offensive, Israel has come under mounting international pressure over it.
The ICJ ruling came days after Ireland, Spain and Norway said they would formally recognize a Palestinian state next week, and the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Hamas leaders on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On the diplomatic front, efforts have resumed to seek the first ceasefire in Gaza since a weeklong truce in November that saw more than 100 hostages released in exchange for 240 Palestinian hostages held in Israeli jails.