By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli forces stepped up military attacks on Gaza on Friday, residents and medics said, with planes bombing targets in the southern city of Rafah even as the U.N. Supreme Court ordered Israel to halt its offensive there.
Heavy fighting was also reported in Jabalia, in the north, where the Israeli army said it had recovered the bodies of three hostages killed in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks that sparked the war.
In Rafah, where an escalating Israeli attack has sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing what was one of the few remaining places of refuge, residents reported that air and ground bombardment has increased in the south and center of the city bordering Egypt.
As the fighting raged, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, said the situation in Rafah was now “disastrous” and ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive.”
The ruling was in response to a request from South Africa in a broader case accusing Israel of genocide.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed the accusation as baseless and indicated it would ignore any ruling by the court, which has no enforcement powers. It says it has no choice but to attack Rafah to wipe out the last battalions of Hamas fighters they say are hiding there.
Residents and Palestinian media reported a series of strikes on roads and houses in the Shaboura neighborhood of central Rafah shortly after the ruling of the International Court of Justice was read in The Hague.
Israel launched its attack on Gaza after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, which killed 1,200 people and seized more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Since then, Israel’s incursion has killed more than 35,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
BODIES RECOVERED
In northern Gaza, medics said at least five Palestinians were killed when houses were hit in Jabalia and more Palestinians were trapped under the rubble, but the area could not be reached due to the intensity of the bombardment.
The Israeli army said it had recovered the bodies of three hostages taken to Gaza after their killings on October 7.
It said the bodies of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez Radoux were recovered overnight during a joint military-intelligence operation in Jabalia.
Israel says its dual objectives in Gaza are to return the remaining hostages and to destroy Hamas.
“We will not stop fighting for their freedom,” military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement announcing the recovery of the three bodies. “Any decent country would do the same.”
Simultaneous Israeli attacks on Gaza’s northern and southern edges this month have sparked a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes and cut off key aid routes, raising the risk of famine.
Israel had said its forces had cleared Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, months earlier in the war. But this month the country backtracked, saying it must prevent the regrouping of Islamist militants. There has been heavy fighting in the area in recent weeks.
Residents said on Friday that tanks had destroyed the local market and bulldozers continued to destroy shops and properties in Jabalia’s narrow alleys. Hamas’ armed wing said its fighters had attacked three tanks there.
Tanks also advanced near the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, where medics said Israeli fire had caused the suspension of operations at the last functioning medical facility in the northern Gaza Strip.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
