Israel sets Ramadan deadline for offensive on Gazan city of Rafah

Israel will launch its long-threatened offensive against Rafah next month if Hamas has not freed the remaining hostages held in Gaza by the start of Ramadan, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said.

"The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know —- if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area," Gantz, a retired military chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem Sunday.

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, is expected to begin on March 10.

The Israeli government has not previously specified a deadline for its planned assault on the city where the majority of the 1.7 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.

Fearing the potential for mass casualties, foreign governments and aid organisations have repeatedly urged Israel to spare Rafah, the last major Gazan city not invaded by ground troops during the four-month-old war.

Despite the mounting international pressure, including a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the war cannot be completed without pressing into Rafah.

Speaking at the same Jerusalem conference on Sunday, Netanyahu renewed his vow "to finish the job to get total victory" over Hamas, with or without a hostage deal.

Gantz added that an offensive would be carried out in a coordinated manner and in conversation with Americans and Egyptians to facilitate an evacuation and "minimise the civilian casualties as much as possible".

But where civilians can safely relocate to on the besieged Gaza Strip remains unclear.

The comments come after weeks of ceasefire talks have failed to produce a deal, with key mediator Qatar acknowledging over the weekend that the prospects are dimming.

Washington, Israel's key ally and military backer, has been pushing for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of the 130 hostages still estimated by Israel to be held in Gaza, including around 30 presumed dead.

Israel has said it believes many of those hostages, as well as the Hamas leadership, are holed up in Rafah.

The militants took about 250 people hostage during the October 7 attacks that triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israeli forces martyr 3 Palestinians in West Bank

Two Palestinian men, including a member of an armed group, were killed Sunday in an Israeli raid, while a third was shot at a checkpoint, in the latest violence in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry said the two, aged 19 and 36, were pronounced dead from gunshot wounds after the raid in the Tulkarm refugee camp, which the United Nations says houses over 27,000 Palestinian refugees.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, identified the elder of the pair as a local commander.

His brother also called him "a member of the resistance".

The deaths came with international concern mounting about unrest in the West Bank since Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the Gaza war.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday described the situation as being at boiling point and warned that "we could be on the eve of a greater explosion".

At least five other people were wounded in the Israeli military operation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Israeli military said its forces were there to apprehend "a senior wanted suspect" believed to have been involved in attacks on its forces and the "killing of individuals in Tulkarm suspected of cooperating with Israeli security forces".

The suspect was killed by Israeli troops in an exchange of fire, then "armed terrorists opened fire and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces, who responded with live fire", the army said in a statement.

"During the exchange of fire, an Israel Border Police officer was severely injured" and hospitalised, it added.

The military said later it had shot a suspect outside the city of Nablus who approached soldiers after getting out of a vehicle.

"Despite the soldiers calling out to the suspect and receiving no response, the suspect persisted in advancing towards them, prompting the soldiers to take action and neutralise him," a statement read.

Fatah said the man, a security officer, was "assassinated in cold blood" at the Beit Furik checkpoint outside Nablus, which is some 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Tulkarm.

The Israeli military has stepped up its near daily raids across the West Bank in the aftermath of Hamas's October 7 attack.

It says the raids are aimed at dismantling Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas.

At least 399 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli military said on Friday that since the start of the Gaza war, its troops had arrested more than 3,100 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 1,350 Hamas members.

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem -- which it later annexed -- as well as the Gaza Strip in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

Around three million Palestinians live in the territory alongside roughly 490,000 Israelis in settlements deemed illegal under international law.

UN court to weigh consequences of Israel occupation

The UN's top court will from Monday hold hearings on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, with an unprecedented 52 countries expected to give evidence.

Nations including the United States, Russia, and China will address judges in a week-long session at the Peace Palace in The Hague, seat of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In December 2022, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ for a non-binding "advisory opinion" on the "legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem."

While any ICJ opinion would be non-binding, it comes amid mounting international legal pressure on Israel over the war in Gaza sparked by the brutal October 7 Hamas attacks.

The hearings are separate from a high-profile case brought by South Africa alleging that Israel is committing genocidal acts during the current Gaza offensive.

The ICJ ruled in that case in January that Israel must do everything in its power to prevent genocide and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.

On Friday, it rejected South Africa's bid to impose additional measures on Israel, but reiterated the need to carry out the ruling in full.

- 'Prolonged occupation' -

The General Assembly has asked the ICJ to consider two questions.

Firstly, the court should examine the legal consequences of what the UN called "the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination".

This relates to the "prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967" and "measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem".

In June 1967, Israel crushed some of its Arab neighbours in a six-day war, seizing the West Bank including east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

Israel then began to settle the 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 square miles) of seized Arab territory. The UN later declared the occupation of Palestinian territory illegal. Cairo regained Sinai under its 1979 peace deal with Israel.

The ICJ has also been asked to look into the consequences of what it described as Israel's "adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures."

Secondly, the ICJ should advise on how Israel's actions "affect the legal status of the occupation" and what are the consequences for the UN and other countries.

The court will rule "urgently" on the affair, probably by the end of the year.

- 'Despicable' -

The ICJ rules in disputes between states and its judgements are binding although it has little means to enforce them.

However, in this case, the opinion it issues will be non-binding.

In the court's own words: "The requesting organ, agency or organisation remains free to give effect to the opinion by any means open to it, or not to do so."

But most advisory opinions are in fact acted upon.

The ICJ has previously issued advisory opinions on the legality of Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and apartheid South Africa's occupation of Namibia.

It also handed down an opinion in 2004 declaring that parts of the wall erected by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory were illegal and should be torn down.

Israel is not participating in the hearings and reacted angrily to the 2022 UN request, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it "despicable" and "disgraceful".

The week after the UN resolution, Israel announced a series of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority to make it "pay the price" for pushing for it.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that while advisory opinions are non-binding, "they can carry great moral and legal authority" and can eventually be inscribed in international law.

The hearings should "highlight the grave abuses Israeli authorities are committing against Palestinians, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution," said Clive Baldwin, HRW senior legal adviser.