Latest Israeli military airstrikes and burning and killing of 45 Palestinian civilians in Gaza shows contempt of ICJ orders

Adalah is horrified by the latest video footage from Rafah, which shows yet another systematic attack by the Israeli military against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, a further tragic event in the unfolding genocide over the last close-to eight months.

Late in the night on 26 May Israel conducted airstrikes in Tel al-Sultan Refugee Camp in Rafah, an area known to be sheltering displaced civilians in makeshift tents and designated by Israel as a ‘safe zone’. Israeli strikes reportedly killed 45 people, including 23 women, children, and the elderly, and injured over 200. Many victims of the attack were burned alive in the devastating fire caused by Israel’s bombardment. The Israeli military also carried out intensive air attacks in areas sheltering displaced Palestinians in Jabalia, Nuseirat, and Gaza City. These attacks occur in a context in which Palestinian civilians, who have been displaced multiple times are already facing desperate conditions, including starvation, and a total lack of medical facilities. Further,  the sole crossing for evacuation from Gaza, the Rafah crossing, has been occupied and closed by Israeli military forces.

This horrific attack comes only days after the most recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) order of 24 May for Israel to “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.” This order marks the third round of provisional measures from the ICJ in the case of the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).

Earlier, the ICJ indicated provisional measures on 26 January 2024 and 28 March 2024, after finding it plausible that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention and that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are at risk of “irreparable harm”.

See Adalah’s statement, “In a Historic Decision, the ICJ Orders Israel to Prevent Genocide in Gaza,” 26 January 2024 

Adalah emphasizes that the ICJ’s provisional measures are binding on Israel as a State Party to the case.

Adalah calls on the international community to urge and ensure Israel's compliance with the ICJ’s provisional measures and international law, as well as to uphold their own obligations under the Genocide Convention. All states have a duty to prevent, and not to aid and abet, the crime of genocide, and we call on the international community to adhere to these legal obligations.

Adalah further calls for immediate international intervention, the provision of unhindered humanitarian aid, and accountability, and stresses that an immediate ceasefire is the only way to protect Palestinian civilians in this catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Photo: aftermath of ann Israeli air strike, in the Al-Mawasi area, west of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. on May 27, 2024. By Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90