How Israel defied ICJ provisional measures, one month on
Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, a handout picture released by the Israeli army on 26 January 2024
Rayhan Uddin reports in Middle East Eye on 2 March 202:
It has now been more than one month since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered an interim ruling calling on Israel to take measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.
The provisional measures were announced on 26 January, weeks after South Africa had taken Israel to the Hague-based court over accusation of genocide against Palestinians. The court did not order Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza, one of South Africa’s key demands. It also did not rule on whether Israel was committing genocide, and will likely not do so for some time.
However, it did rule on several provisional measures, voted for by the vast majority of the court’s seventeen judges.
It ordered Israel to take measures to prevent acts that fall under Article II of the Genocide Convention, namely: killing members of a particular group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately bringing about the physical destruction of the group, and imposing measures intended to prevent births. The court also ordered Israel to enable the provision of urgent humanitarian aid, prevent the destruction of evidence of crimes and to prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide against Palestinians.
In addition, it commanded Israel to submit a report within a month outlining all the measures it had taken to follow the ICJ’s orders. Israel submitted the report earlier this week.
Over the past month, actions taken by Israel in Gaza appear to defy several of the provisional measures. Middle East Eye takes a look below.
Killing civilians in Gaza
The court instructed Israel to take all measures to prevent killing Palestinians in Gaza, as part of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. However, Palestinian civilians were killed every day in the first two weeks following the ICJ ruling, according to an investigation by Airwars.
Between 27 January and 9 February, Airwars monitored more than 200 incidents of “harm”. In 190 incidents, civilians were killed or wounded by explosive weapons, while civilians were killed or wounded by live gunfire in 36 incidents. Among those civilians killed were healthcare workers, journalists, people waiting for humanitarian aid and those sheltering in education centres. In 13 separate incidents, 10 or more civilians were killed.
The killing of Palestinian civilians continued beyond the first two weeks since the ruling.