Israel must take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians,” ruled the court in its highly anticipated verdict.
At this stage, the ICJ is weighing emergency orders while it considers the wider accusation of genocidal acts in Gaza — a process likely to take years.
South Africa has brought the case, accusing Israel of breaching the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention, set up in the ashes of World War II and the Holocaust.
Over two days of hearings earlier this month in the gilded halls of the Peace Palace in The Hague, a world away from the violence in Israel and Gaza, robed lawyers battled over the technicalities of the Genocide Convention.
“Genocides are never declared in advance,” declared Adila Hassim, a top lawyer for South Africa.
“But this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts,” she added.
hurriyetdailynews.com