‘Never before has Israel come under such sustained legal and diplomatic pressure’ • FRANCE 24

‘Never before has Israel come under such sustained legal and diplomatic pressure’ • FRANCE 24

is that Israel is indeed pressing ahead with its offensive in Rafa that’s in in defiance of global calls for it to Halt its military operations eyewitnesses saying that tanks have been spotted uh pushing into the Heart of the City they were spotted at the AL AA mosque as you can see here on this map um that this is a a landmark in central Rafa um elsewhere Israeli forces also reportedly in complete control of the Philadelphia Corridor now that’s a narrow strip of land that runs right along gaza’s border with Egypt right up to the Mediterranean Sea strategically important because it was created to prevent the transfer the smuggling of goods between Egypt and Gaza and yesterday as well Israeli forces accused once again of striking a camp uh for displaced people this time in al- maasi that’s a evacuation Zone just west of Rafa Gaza Health officials saying at least 21 Palestinians were killed the IDF has vehemently denied those reports but it does come on the back of international condemnation of another strike carried out by the IDF on Sunday night in which 45 Palestinians were killed amongst them women and children right well uh we’ve seen the icj the intern International court of justice it ordered Israel to Halt its Rafa offensive last week earlier we heard from the IC the the chief prosecutor requesting arrest warrants for uh Benjamin Netanyahu uh and top Israeli leaders so the pressure on Israel uh is mounting uh but is it having any impact well Caris I think never before has Israel come under such sustained legal and diplomatic pressure from the International Community let’s just remind viewers of the pressure that Israel is under you can see there on your screen more than a week ago the international criminal court as you mentioned requested arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and yov Galant the Israeli Prime Minister and Israeli defense minister that puts those two men in the same company of leaders like Vladimir Putin and Omar al- Bashir the former dictator of Sudan then last Friday the icj that’s the un’s top court ordered Israel to Halt its offensive in Rafa and just yesterday of course we had those three European countries Spain Ireland and Norway formerly recognizing Palestinian statehood a move that’s largely seen as being uh symbolic H now uh it’s very unlikely that the IC will ever get benjam Netanyahu or Yu of Galant in the dock the US and UK have already criticized the IC over that move uh it’s also equally unlikely that uh Israel will heed the icj’s ruling the un’s top Court to Halt its offensive in Rafa remember that the icj’s rulings are legally binding but it has no enforcement uh mechanism so the question you may be asking then is what is the impact of this pressure well in the short term it won’t uh stop fighting on the ground that means that Israel will continue uh its offensive in Rafa there will probably be more civilian casualties however uh there will be more and more reputational damage done to Israel and more and more Israel is looking like an isolated country uh almost entirely reliant on the us for support so then the other question you may ask is why is Israel continuing its offensive in Rafa then what does it have to gain well we can to answer that question we can look at uh what Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week uh when he spoke to the Israeli Parliament and the key phrase there is right at the end I don’t intend to end the war before every goal has been achieved uh and the key takeaway here is that after seven months of War Israel hasn’t achieved its military objectives uh top Hamas leaders are still at large uh hostages are still being held and if Netanyahu stops the war now then right-wing members of his Coalition will probably with draw that would cause his government to collapse so a lot of this is down to Benjamin netanyahu’s political survival right and and meanwhile the United Nations security Council met uh Tuesday to discuss that strike that you mentioned that hit uh Rafa on Sunday what came out of that uh so what happened last night was that Algeria tabled a draft resolution uh to members of the security Council in that resolution it called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages it drew on the I C J ruling uh calling on Israel to Halt its offensive uh the draft resolution also uh said that the catastrophic situation in Gaza was a threat to International Peace and security that’s some of the toughest language we’ve seen yet coming out of the security Council with regards to the war in Gaza diplomats saying there could be a vote in the next few days on that resolution however what tends to happen in these cases is that Israel usually enjoys the protection of the US uh which sits as a permanent member of the security Council so it has veto power um the US has so far shielded Israel from three resolutions on Gaza using its veto power but Washington does occasionally abstain from votes that’s its way of exerting pressure on its Ally it did that notably in March you’ll recall when the security Council called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas otherwise what the US has done in the past and what it may very well do this time is to veto the resolution and to propose its own draft resolution ution with watered down language in the form of a compromise

Defying an order from the International Court of Justice, Israeli forces have kept up their offensive in Rafah, where they aim to root out the last major intact formations of Hamas fighters and rescue hostages. “Never before has Israel come under such sustained legal and diplomatic pressure from the international community,” said Andrew Hilliar, FRANCE24 Senior Journalist. Click on the video for more. 
 
#Israel #Gaza #Rafah

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