World desk:

South Africa on Tuesday urged the UN’s top court to put more legal pressure on Israel to end its deadly ground offensive against Gaza’s densely populated Rafah city.
Pretoria has already accused Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague of violating the Genocide Convention over Israel’s attack on Gaza.
The court has yet to rule on the underlying issue, but on January 26 the court ordered Israel in an interim order to ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the provision of humanitarian aid.
Despite the directive, Israel’s offensive continues and its forces are preparing airstrikes as well as ground operations in the densely populated city of Rafah. More than half of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have taken refuge in the city of Rafah to escape Israeli attacks.
For South Africa, this is enough for the ICJ to reconsider its interim order against Israel and issue a stricter order.
South Africa said in its update, “The continuing situation in Gaza since the interim order requires the Court’s urgent attention”. “We are deeply concerned about the unprecedented military attack,” it said.
Israel has already announced a ground operation in the town of Rafah, and this will result in even greater carnage, damage and destruction.’
The South African Presidency warned, ‘This would constitute an irreparable breach of both the Genocide Convention and the court order of 26 January 2024.’
It said, ‘South Africa trusts that the court will take the necessary urgent action in light of the massive death toll in Gaza every day.’
Israel’s military operation has killed more than 28,473 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Most of them are women and children.

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