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SvennoJ on 16 February 2024
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ICJ declines to order additional provisional measures against Israel

In a statement released on its website, the International Court of Justice says that the humanitarian situation in Rafah and Israel’s impending military operation there do “not demand the indication of additional provisional measures.” According to the statement, South Africa requested additional provisional measures in light of the situation in Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are currently sheltering as they await a full-scale assault promised by Israel, earlier this week.

“The Court notes that the most recent developments in the Gaza Strip, and in Rafah, in particular, ‘would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences’,” the statement reads. “This perilous situation demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures indicated by the Court in its Order of 26 January 2024, which are applicable throughout the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah,” it continues.

Last month, the court ordered that “Israel must take all possible measures to prevent acts as outlined in Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention,” during its ongoing war in Gaza.

South Africa says court decision affirms view that situation in Rafah exceptionally perilous

The office of the President of South Africa has released a statement welcoming a response from the ICJ to a request from South Africa for additional provisional measures against Israel. The court stated that an Israeli assault on Rafah would “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences” and demand adherence to current orders to prevent genocide.

However, the court rejected South Africa’s request for additional measures, the central point of South Africa’s request. Nonetheless, South Africa said in a statement that the court has accepted:

1. That Israel’s planned incursions in Rafah would render what is already a humanitarian disaster even more perilous.

2. The situation requires compliance with the existing provisional measures.

3. Compliance with the existing provisional measures requires the protection of civilians in Gaza including Rafah.



ICJ places ball back in US, UN’s court with latest decision

Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch and a current visiting professor at Princeton University in the US, tells Al Jazeera that even though the International Court of Justice declined to grant South Africa’s emergency application to stop Israel’s assault on Rafah, it did use very strong language condemning the planned operation.

“South Africa brought this emergency application because it feared the consequences of the threatened invasion of Rafah,” Roth said, and was hopeful that the court would halt this invasion. Though the ICJ did not grant South Africa’s request, “It did … use very strong language. It said if the invasion were to occur, it would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare,” Roth continued.

“What the court just did though, it said, ‘We already ordered all this to stop. Rather than repeating ourselves, it’s up to the governments of the world, the UN Security Council, and foremost the US government, to stop this killing.”

UN shares photos of devastated civilian infrastructure in Gaza

The United Nations has reiterated that civilian infrastructure must be protected, as more than four months of heavy Israeli bombardment and assault have decimated vital infrastructure in Gaza. In a social media post, the UN shared photos of burned-out humanitarian centres. “The devastating toll of four months of conflict in Gaza,” the UN said. “Civilians [and] critical infrastructure are #NotATarget [and] must always be protected.”





Palestinian surgeon inside Nasser Hospital warns "all the ICU patients will die" as Israeli raid continues

A doctor trapped inside Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza said the wards and corridors “are still flooded with beds” as Israeli forces continued to raid what was the largest remaining functioning hospital in the enclave.

“The situation is still the same. All of the medical staff and patients are still trapped in the medical department," he said in a voice note late Thursday. His testimony was shared with CNN by his colleague. “Most of the patients do not have the chance to get the medicine and their health care ... We cannot make rounds on patients. We cannot move between beds,” added the surgeon, who asked not to be named for security reasons. “No one can reach the ICU ... the army is inside it,” he wrote in a message. “All the ICU patients will die.”

On Friday, details emerged of the grim conditions faced by those left inside the facility. At least five patients died after Israel’s attack caused the complex to lose power, the ministry said, adding that Nasser Hospital was “without electricity, water, food, and heating.”

Surgeon says medical workers in Gaza reduced to practising ’18th-century medicine’

Amid a brutal Israeli assault that has severely restricted access to basic medical supplies, medical workers in Gaza say they are attempting to assist many Palestinians in conditions and with resources reminiscent of the days before modern medicine. “The situation here is indescribable, to say the least,” said Dr Mohamed Elfar, an American member of a team of foreign medical workers offering assistance at hospitals in Gaza.

“This morning I had to do surgery without any gowns, I had to do it in my scrubs. I’ve seen patients with minor burns that end up dying just because there’s no care, nothing is available to provide them with care,” he said, adding that medical workers in Gaza are exhausted after working non-stop for four months. “You walk into the ward and we are practising 18th-century medicine here,” he added.

WHO convoy detained for seven hours: Health ministry

Israeli forces have detained the convoy some 50 meters (164ft) away from Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, the Gaza Health Ministry says. “The convoy consists of two trucks, one with fuel and the other with water and food, and has been detained for 7 hours,” the ministry said on its Telegram page.

“The Israeli occupation set up holes in front and behind the UN aid convoy to prevent it from reaching the Nasser Medical Complex.” The Israeli army has besieged the facility for weeks, isolating thousands of patients, medical staff and displaced families


A woman rests next to a damaged building, as Palestinians arrive in Rafah after being evacuated from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis

Al Jazeera’s Ismail Abu Omar’s condition ‘very critical’: Doctor

Abu Omar, together with his cameraman, was wounded in an Israeli attack earlier this week north of Rafah in southern Gaza. The head of a US medical delegation in Gaza, Muhammad al-Far, has given an update on Abu Omar’s health. Here are his translated comments:

  • Abu Omar’s condition is very critical.
  • We appeal for help to transfer Abu Omar out of the Gaza Strip so that we can save his life.
  • There are potentially serious complications that could affect his wellbeing.

People eating animal feed for survival

People in Gaza are suffering from acute food insecurity amid a very limited number of humanitarian aid trucks being allowed to enter Gaza. This is especially difficult for the most affected areas of the Strip, such as those in the north. There, you have no source of food, and people are forced to grind animal feed just to get enough food to survive. Others are relying on herbs, weeds and grass in order to stay alive.

Why is nobody else calling him out

Biden’s call for ‘temporary ceasefire’ in Gaza don’t go far enough

Ali Abunimah, Palestinian American author and director of the Palestine news website Electronic Intifada, tells Al Jazeera that Biden’s earlier comments on a “temporary ceasefire” in Gaza are part of a “duplicitous double game”. “I’ve had extensive conversations with the prime minister of Israel over the last several days, one hour each. And I made the case, that I feel very strongly about, that there has to be a temporary ceasefire to get the hostages out,” Biden told reporters today, as we reported earlier.

If a pause in the fighting in Gaza is what the US desires, Abunimah said, “They would have accepted the proposal from the Palestinian resistance,” which called for a 135-day temporary ceasefire that would lead to a permanent end to the war. “Joe Biden is playing a double game, a very duplicitous double game, because he is facing growing opposition to his support for this genocide at home in an election year,” Abunimah continued. “He is posing as if he is opposed to what Israel is doing, but is powerless to stop it.”

“The reality is, Joe Biden can stop this with one phone call, if not to Netanyahu then to the Pentagon, and all he has to say is stop the 24-hour airlift of bombs that Israel is using” against the population of Gaza, he said.

PRCS rejects Israeli claim that medical workers assisted Hamas fighters on October 7

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has denied Israeli allegations that a PRCS ambulance and staff provided treatment to injured Hamas fighters during their incursion into Israel on October 7. Israel released a photo purporting to show a PRCS ambulance in use, but the group has said that the ambulance is not a PRCS vehicle.

“Once again, the occupation deliberately creates false narratives about the work of the Palestinian Red Crescent by publishing a video of an ambulance and paramedics providing treatment to an injured fighter,” the group said in a social media post.

“The vehicle that appears in the video is not a Palestinian Red Crescent vehicle, and the two paramedics who appear in the video are clearly not wearing the uniform of Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews.”

Israel increases security levels, carries out West Bank raids following shooting

Israeli forces have stormed Shuafat refugee camp after a gunman, said to be from the camp, opened fire on a group of Israelis at a bus stop in southern Israel. “The state of Israel has now increased the security level to its highest alert,” Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut reported from occupied East Jerusalem.

“The Israeli occupation forces have stormed the Shuafat refugee camp, going to the home of the alleged attacker,” she added. “There were scenes of masses of Israeli police, border police and army alike, going through the refugee camp and attacking some residents there. One of the neighbours ended up getting shot in the head with a rubber bullet by Israeli forces. This, Palestinians say, is a form of collective punishment they are often subjected to when there’s an attack.”