South Africa announced on Tuesday 13 February that it had lodged a new appeal with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's highest judicial body, asking it to urgently examine Israel's announcement of a forthcoming military offensive on Rafah and, if necessary, oppose "a new violation of rights", Ednews reports citing Le Monde.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered his army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, the last refuge for 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the UN, or more than half the total population of the Gaza Strip, most of whom have fled the war that has been raging for four months. International pressure has since intensified for a truce agreement between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas. Pretoria said on Monday that it had lodged an urgent appeal with the ICJ in The Hague.
