Hamas welcomes ICJ order on Rafah, but says ruling doesn’t go far enough

The Hamas terror group welcomes the International Court of Justice’s order for Israel to halt military operations in Rafah that would risk the destruction of the civilian population sheltering there.

However, the Gaza-based terror organization tells Reuters that the ruling fell short of recognizing the ongoing fighting in other parts of the enclave.

“We believe it is not enough since the occupation’s aggression across the Gaza Strip, especially in northern Gaza, is just as brutal and dangerous,” senior Hamas official Basem Naim says.

Hamas calls on the United Nations Security Council to implement the International Court of Justice decision, he says, adding that the terror group welcomes the court’s request to allow investigation committees to reach the Gaza Strip to probe allegations of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Israel has strongly denied it has carried out acts of genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza, which is now in its eighth month.

“Hamas pledges to cooperate with the investigation committees,” Naim tells Reuters.

War broke out between Israel and Hamas following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, in which terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 252, while committing widespread atrocities and sexual assault.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 35,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting since the beginning of the Israeli offensive, though only some 24,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals. The tolls, which cannot be verified, include some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.