EXPERT COMMENT
Confrontation with the courts shores up Netanyahu's supporter base - even as Israel's international isolation deepens.
Last week was a difficult one for Israel in the international legal arena. The decision by Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to seek arrest warrants for leaders of both Israel and Hamas was quickly followed by an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel must halt any military offensive in Rafah that could harm civilians.
However, not everything is exactly what it seems, and the sad reality is that neither development will bring an immediate stop to the war.
The wording of the ICJ's ruling is more a reiteration of how the war should be conducted than a judgment on its legality. South Africa, whose role in this legal saga has been characterized by some as one of self-aggrandisement, appealed to the ICJ for an interim order to compel Israel to immediately halt hostilities in the Gaza Strip, for which the judges provided only a limited remedy.
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