GAZA CITY, Palestine 

Attacks killing dozens of civilians in Gaza were Israel's "practical response" to a recent International Court of Justice opinion demanding the evacuation of Israeli settlements on occupied lands, Hamas said Saturday.

The Palestinian group underlined that Israel "continues its intense bombing and war of extermination against defenseless civilians across the Gaza Strip, resulting in dozens of martyrs over the past 24 hours, most of them children and women."

"This serves as a practical response to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which acknowledged the illegality of the occupation and the right of our people to self-determination," it added.

Hamas urged the UN to "act immediately to halt the series of Israeli terrorism and criminality, which is being carried out with the direct support of the American administration."

On Friday, the top UN court affirmed Palestinians' right to self-determination and ruled that Israeli settlements in occupied territories must be evacuated.

The court's advisory opinion, delivered in The Hague, declared the occupied Palestinian territories as a "single territorial unit" that must be protected.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 38,800 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi