Merve Aydogan
24 May 2024•Update: 24 May 2024
HAMILTON, Canada
Palestine's UN envoy Riyad Mansour on Friday welcomed the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
"We expect the resolutions of the ICJ to be implemented without hesitation. That's mandatory, and Israel is party to the convention, and the convention is crystal clear on this issue," Mansour told reporters, adding that Israel must "abide by the decisions and the demands from the ICJ."
Welcoming the ICJ ruling, Mansour also expressed gratitude to "South Africa and those who supported them for going back to the ICJ asking them for additional provisional measures."
"We also welcome the fact that they called for the opening of Rafah crossing for providing humanitarian assistance to scale and to continue fighting against the crime against humanity of mass transfer, including the pushing of 800,000 of Palestinians around the Rafah to move to other parts of the Gaza Strip," he added.
Earlier, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza Strip where it sent forces in early May.
According to UN agencies, more than 800,000 have since fled Rafah due to the ground invasion.
Besides, the ICJ ordered maintaining the Rafah border crossing open "for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance."
It called on Israel to "ensure access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide."
It also ordered Tel Aviv to submit a report on the measures taken on the latest order within a month.
Separately, Mansour welcomed UN Security Council adopting a resolution spearheaded by Switzerland, advocating for the protection of humanitarian and UN personnel.
Stating that the resolution adopted the Council was "tailored to Gaza without necessarily mentioning Gaza by name," he said that the measure "would be greatly helpful and hopefully having a ceasefire, definitely stopping this onslaught and preventing the invasion of Rafah."
