THE HAGUE: The United Nations’ top court opens two days of hearings on Thursday into a request from South Africa to make sure Israel halts its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population has sought shelter.
It is the fourth time South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice for emergency measures since the nation launched proceedings alleging that Israel’s military action in its war with Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide.
According to the latest request, the previous preliminary orders by The Hague-based court were not sufficient to address “a brutal military attack on the sole remaining refuge for the people of Gaza.”
Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last stronghold of the militant group, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians.
South Africa has asked the court to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah; to take measures to ensure unimpeded access for UN officials, humanitarian organizations and journalists to the Gaza Strip; and to report back within one week on how it is meeting these demands.
During hearings earlier this year, Israel strongly denied committing genocide in Gaza and said it does all it can to spare civilians and is only targeting Hamas militants. It says Hamas’ tactic of embedding in civilian areas makes it difficult to avoid civilian casualties.
In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave.
In a second order in March, the court said Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies to enter.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since fighting began.
The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its count.
South Africa initiated proceedings in December 2023 and sees the legal campaign as rooted in issues central to its identity. Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands.” Apartheid ended in 1994.
On Sunday, Egypt announced it plans to join the case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israeli military actions “constitute a flagrant violation of international law, humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 regarding the protection of civilians during wartime.”
Several countries have also indicated they plan to intervene, but so far only Libya, Nicaragua and Colombia have filed formal requests to do so.
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The top UN court holds hearings on Israeli military incursion into Rafah
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The top UN court holds hearings on Israeli military incursion into Rafah
- It is the fourth time South Africa has asked the ICJ for emergency measures
- South Africa has asked the court to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah
US transfers thousands of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq
BAGHDAD: The United States Central Command said it has completed the transfer of more than 5,700 detained Daesh group suspects from Syria to Iraq.
The detainees from some 60 countries had for years been held in Syrian prisons run by Kurdish-led forces before the recapture of surrounding territory by Damascus prompted Washington to step in.
CENTCOM said it “completed a transfer mission following a nighttime flight from northeastern Syria to Iraq on Feb 12 to help ensure Daesh detainees remain secure in detention facilities.”
“The 23-day transfer mission began on Jan 21 and resulted in US forces successfully transporting more than 5,700 adult male Daesh fighters from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody,” it added in a statement.
The US had previously announced it would transfer around 7,000 detainees.
Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected jihadists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
- 61 countries -
Last month, Syrian troops drove Kurdish forces from swathes of northern Syria, sparking questions over the fate of the Daesh prisoners.
Lingering doubts about security pushed Washington to announce it would transfer them to Iraq to prevent “a breakout” that could threaten the region.
“We appreciate Iraq’s leadership and recognition that transferring the detainees is essential to regional security,” said head of CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper.
“Job well done to the entire Joint Force team who executed this exceptionally challenging mission on the ground and in the air,” he added.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) said 5,704 Daesh detainees of 61 nationalities have arrived in Iraq.
They include 3,543 Syrians, 467 Iraqis, and another 710 detainees from other Arab countries.
There are also more than 980 foreigners including those from Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
The NCIJC said Iraq’s judiciary will interrogate the detainees before taking legal action against them.
Many prisons in Iraq are already packed with Daesh suspects.
Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to those convicted of terrorism offenses, including foreign fighters.
Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offenses are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president.
The detainees in Syria were transferred to Baghdad’s Al-Karkh prison, once a US Army detention center known as Camp Cropper, where former ruler Saddam Hussein was held before his execution.
To make space for the newcomers, authorities moved thousands of prisoners from the Karkh prison to other facilities, a lawyer and an inmate told AFP on condition of anonymity.
- Repatriation -
Iraq has issued calls for countries to repatriate their nationals among the Daesh detainees, though this appears unlikely.
For years, Syria’s Kurdish forces also called on foreign governments to take back their citizens, but this was done on a small scale limited to women and children held in detention camps.
Most foreign families have left northeast Syria’s Al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of Daesh fighters, since the departure of Kurdish forces who previously guarded it, humanitarian sources told AFP on Thursday.
Last month, the Syrian government took over the camp from Kurdish forces who ceded territory as Damascus extended its control across swathes of Syria’s northeast.
The detainees from some 60 countries had for years been held in Syrian prisons run by Kurdish-led forces before the recapture of surrounding territory by Damascus prompted Washington to step in.
CENTCOM said it “completed a transfer mission following a nighttime flight from northeastern Syria to Iraq on Feb 12 to help ensure Daesh detainees remain secure in detention facilities.”
“The 23-day transfer mission began on Jan 21 and resulted in US forces successfully transporting more than 5,700 adult male Daesh fighters from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody,” it added in a statement.
The US had previously announced it would transfer around 7,000 detainees.
Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected jihadists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
- 61 countries -
Last month, Syrian troops drove Kurdish forces from swathes of northern Syria, sparking questions over the fate of the Daesh prisoners.
Lingering doubts about security pushed Washington to announce it would transfer them to Iraq to prevent “a breakout” that could threaten the region.
“We appreciate Iraq’s leadership and recognition that transferring the detainees is essential to regional security,” said head of CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper.
“Job well done to the entire Joint Force team who executed this exceptionally challenging mission on the ground and in the air,” he added.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) said 5,704 Daesh detainees of 61 nationalities have arrived in Iraq.
They include 3,543 Syrians, 467 Iraqis, and another 710 detainees from other Arab countries.
There are also more than 980 foreigners including those from Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
The NCIJC said Iraq’s judiciary will interrogate the detainees before taking legal action against them.
Many prisons in Iraq are already packed with Daesh suspects.
Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to those convicted of terrorism offenses, including foreign fighters.
Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offenses are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president.
The detainees in Syria were transferred to Baghdad’s Al-Karkh prison, once a US Army detention center known as Camp Cropper, where former ruler Saddam Hussein was held before his execution.
To make space for the newcomers, authorities moved thousands of prisoners from the Karkh prison to other facilities, a lawyer and an inmate told AFP on condition of anonymity.
- Repatriation -
Iraq has issued calls for countries to repatriate their nationals among the Daesh detainees, though this appears unlikely.
For years, Syria’s Kurdish forces also called on foreign governments to take back their citizens, but this was done on a small scale limited to women and children held in detention camps.
Most foreign families have left northeast Syria’s Al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of Daesh fighters, since the departure of Kurdish forces who previously guarded it, humanitarian sources told AFP on Thursday.
Last month, the Syrian government took over the camp from Kurdish forces who ceded territory as Damascus extended its control across swathes of Syria’s northeast.
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