Israel strikes Rafah again after UN court orders halt to offensive

Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded Rafah again, after the government dismissed an order by the top UN court to halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city.

At the same time, questions remained over the resumption of truce talks despite renewed international efforts aimed at securing a prisoner-hostage exchange and ceasefire in the war sparked by Palestinian group Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.

An Israeli official said on Saturday the government had an "intention" to restart stalled negotiations over the coming days.

But a senior member of Hamas later told Al Jazeera he had not been "informed of anything by the mediators in this context".

In a case brought by South Africa alleging the Israeli military operation amounts to "genocide", the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive, and demanded the release of hostages and the "unhindered provision" of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The Hague-based ICJ, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, also instructed Israel to keep open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, after Israel's seizure of the Palestinian side earlier this month effectively shut it.

Israeli military vehicles operate in the Gazan side of the Rafah Crossing. File/Reuters

Israel gave no indication it was preparing to change course in Rafah, insisting the court had got it wrong.

The ruling said Israel must "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".

But National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, in a joint statement with the foreign ministry, said: "Israel has not and will not carry out military operations in the Rafah area that create living conditions that could cause the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part."

Hamas, the Iran-backed Islamist group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, welcomed the ruling but criticised the court's decision to exclude the rest of the Palestinian territory from its order.

Agence France-Presse