Israel dismissed the case as a “grossly distorted story” and said that if any genocidal acts were committed, they were carried out against Israel during the 7 October Hamas attacks.
Israel’s top lawyer Tal Baker said, “Israel does not want to destroy any people by taking action in Gaza, but wants to protect its people, who are under attack on multiple fronts.”
Now the question is whether the court’s decision will be followed.
Although its decisions are legally binding, it has no mechanism to enforce them and is sometimes ignored entirely – for example, it has ordered Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine. .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already indicated that Israel will not abide by any decision, saying “nobody will stop us”, not even the decision in The Hague.
But experts believe that apart from the decision’s significant symbolic impact, it could also have concrete consequences on the ground.