The Financial Times reports that Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he will defy any restrictions, aka provisional measures, that might be imposed on Israel by the International Court of Justice in the case lodged by South Africa. As we and many others have pointed out, the ICJ has no enforcement powers, so a ruling against Israel would appear to have no immediate effect unless the UN or other states or international bodies were to impose concrete measures to try to constrain or punish Israel. Admittedly, some states do have provisions that restrict dealing with groups found to have engaged in genocide or other war crimes. From the Financial Times:
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday evening, Israel’s prime minister defiantly brushed aside calls for a ceasefire and blasted South Africa’s allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, brought at The Hague-based International Court of Justice.
“Nobody will stop us — not The Hague, not the [Iranian-led] axis of evil and not anybody else,” Netanyahu said.
“The hypocritical onslaught at The Hague against the state of the Jews that arose from the ashes of the Holocaust . . . is a moral low point in the history of nations,” he added.
If you have any doubts about Israel’s sense of impunity, slaughter of Palestinian civilians continues:
Breaking: Starvation has reached unprecedented levels… Thousands in western Gaza city rushed out upon hearing of a food truck’s arrival, only to be fired upon by the Israeli army. #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/WTDXaL0bwQ
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) January 14, 2024
Breaking: Starvation has reached unprecedented levels… Thousands in western Gaza city rushed out upon hearing of a food truck’s arrival, only to be fired upon by the Israeli army. #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/WTDXaL0bwQ
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) January 14, 2024
One truck of flour for 800K Palestinians in northern #Gaza
1 truck.
If that is not a deliberate act starvation & humiliation, feel free to tell me what it is. #Israel https://t.co/KmDi1lQM7o
— Abier (@abierkhatib) January 14, 2024
As well as the US enablement:
Palestinians aren’t even mentioned once in this statement from Biden https://t.co/Ck5LMEGUFs
— Alex Press (@alexnpress) January 15, 2024
The pink paper also describes how Netanyahu is not only staring down international low and world opinion but also domestic opposition. Public demands for a ceasefire to secure the release of roughly 130 Israeli hostages are getting louder. Yet the government insists, against evidence, that only continued prosecution of its campaign will lead to the hostages being freed. First, as we know, the active fighting has wound down as Israel has pulled most of its ground forces out of Gaza. Second, pray tell how will an onslaught against Hamas, particularly if in or by damaging the tunnels, not risk hostage death and injury?
However, the Wall Street Journal describes how Israel plans an increase in military operations in Gaza, to secure an area on the south border with Egypt that it claims Hamas uses to smuggle in weapons and supplies. From the Journal:
Israeli officials have informed Egypt that they are planning a military operation along the Gaza side of the border, current and former Israeli officials and Egyptian officials said. The operation would likely involve removing Palestinian officials from a key crossing point and stationing Israeli forces along a stretch of land from Gaza’s southeastern corner abutting both Israel and Egypt toward the Mediterranean Sea about 8 miles to the northwest, the officials said.
For Israel, reclaiming the border region would strike a strategic blow against Hamas. It would allow Israel to block Hamas’s tunnels in the area, limit its flow of weapons, prevent its militants from escaping the Gaza Strip and remove any control the group has over the crossing point.
For Palestinians, it would roll back a symbol of Palestinian sovereignty. It could also open the door to Israel maintaining longer-term control over the border after the war, altering a security arrangement with Gaza that has existed for nearly two decades….
Egypt is concerned that an Israeli operation could infringe on the terms of a 1979 peace treaty between the two countries, which places limits on the number of troops both nations can place near the borders in the area. An Israeli military operation also risks accidentally doing damage inside Egyptian territory. Israeli officials say they are working to address those concerns by coordinating their plans for an incursion on the Gaza side with Egypt.
gypt in recent days rejected an Israeli proposal that would involve stationing Israeli security personnel on the Egyptian side of the border for joint patrols with Egypt, saying it would breach Egyptian sovereignty….
Israeli leaders haven’t given a final go-ahead for an operation along the border and the timing of any operation will depend on negotiations with the Egyptian government…
Egypt says its military and intelligence services maintain tight control over the border area. Using diplomatic and security channels, Egypt has been pushing back on Israel’s plans in hopes that Israel will back down, Egyptian officials said.
The article contains a lot more backstory, such as how in 2005, when Israel pulled out of Gaza, it kept control of the airspace, the sea border, and all entry points except at Rafah. However, the fact that Israel stopped aid trucks from entering at Rafah would suggest it has at least some control there. The Palestinian Authority and EU monitors were initially in charge. They left when Hamas took power, although Israel coordinated with Egypt to curb entry.
Those who know the situation in Gaza better than I do should feel free to correct me. I find it odd that Israel is turning, apparently only now, to the matter of the Rafah entry and southern border only now. Even yours truly who knew close to bupkis about Gaza knew that Hamas depended significantly on its tunnels into Egypt for supplies. So why, pray tell, did Israel focus on flattening northern Gaza first, trying to force the population into souther Gaza, and now decide it has to better secure the border to interdict supplies to Hamas? Why did it not instead bomb the southern border area first, and try to move Palestinians out of there so it could work on capturing the border from the Gaza side and attack the tunnels there so as to choke Hamas’ necessities?
The timing raises the specter that this is military theater to bolster the Israel claims in the International Court of Justice that it is waging war against Hamas, as opposed to seeking to eliminate Palestinians in Gaza. by (finally) launching a Hamas-focused operation. Even though Netanyahu professes to be unconcerned about the ICJ, he would be at the head of the line in any International Criminal Court prosecution. Perhaps a few in the Israeli adminisphere are looking to create some plausible deniability. Or perhaps this is to demonstrate to the Israeli public that Israel is still Doing Something about Hamas despite the troop withdrawals in Gaza. Or perhaps this move is to even better, erm, control humanitarian supplies. From Al Jazeera:
The lack of aid entering Gaza through Rafah and other border crossings has been solely caused by Israel, according to Diaa Rashwan, the chairman of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS).
“Throughout these 100 days, has been the stubbornness and intentionality of the occupying Israeli authorities, at other Gaza Strip crossings, delaying the inspection of aid before allowing its passage to the Palestinian side, by virtue of its military control over the territory of the Gaza Strip,” he was quoted as saying in an SIS post on Facebook.
Rashwan added that the Rafah crossing hadn’t been closed “for a single moment” on the Egyptian side, while Israeli authorities deliberately disrupted or delayed the entry of aid “under the pretext of inspecting it”.
So Israel is as determined as ever to continue on its current course.
