The International Court of Justice, on May 24, ruled that Israel must immediately stop its military offensive in Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, where over 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced people, were camping. Two days later, Israel carried out devastating air strikes on Rafah, targeting tent camps of the displaced in areas that were designated as humanitarian corridors, killing at least 45 Palestinians, half of them children, women and older people, creating a global. Outrage.

Hello everyone, this is Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor

The Gaza war is in its eighth month. In January, while hearing a genocide case against Israel that was filed by South Africa, the ICJ, the United Nation’s top court, had asked Tel Aviv to take necessary measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. It was a momentous ruling, as The Hindu’s Editorial noted on January 29. But the ruling did not have any effect on the way the Jewish state is conducting the war.

On March 25, the UN Security Council demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. But Israel not just continued the war defying the UNSC resolution, but expanded it in May by invading Rafah, displacing the displaced again. 

The ICJ, which refused to order a ceasefire in January, came to the conclusion this month that the Rafah offensive could lead to a complete or partial destruction of the Palestinian population in the city. The court also asked Israel to keep the Rafah crossing with Egypt open for aid delivery and allow UN investigators to gather evidence about alleged war crimes, besides demanding an immediate release of all hostages.

The ICJ ruling came days after the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, claimed that Israeli and Hamas leaders had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, He has sought arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

None of these developments seem have to deterred Israel. If so, the May 26 Rafah massacre would not have taken place. The ICJ rulings are legally binding, but the world court lacks the mechanisms to implement them. In the 24 hours since the ICJ issued its ruling, Israeli air strikes killed at least 190 civilians across the Gaza Strip, pushing the overall toll since the war began to 36,000. Roughly 80,000 Palestinians have been wounded. Almost all of Gaza’s population has been displaced. The enclave doesn’t enough food, medicines, shelter or medical facilities. And the hungry, sick, displaced and wounded Palestinians, who live in tent camps and UN shelters, continue to be bombed by the Israeli Defence Forces.

Is this way of fighting helping Israel meet its objectives? 

More than seven months after the war began, which was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 cross border attack on Israel in which at least 1,200 people were killed, Tel Aviv seems to be fighting in the dark. When it launched the war, Mr. Netanyahu said he would crush Hamas and release hostages. True, Israel possesses enormous fire power to inflict damage on Gaza and kill Palestinians sleeping inside their tent camps.

But has Israel defeated Hamas? 

Today, Israel is fighting Hamas even in northern and central parts of Gaza where it had earlier declared victory. That Hamas launched rockets into Tel Aviv over the weekend even after seven months of fighting in a besieged enclave raises serious questions about the way the war is being fought. At least 120 hostages, most of them feared dead, are still in Hamas’s captivity.

The war is marked not just by the incompetence of the Israeli Defence Forces but also its cruelty. Its disproportionate use of force on Gaza has turned the strip into a graveyard, as the UN termed it. The world cannot ignore the Palestine question any more and move on, having witnessed this calamity in Gaza and West Bank. Last week’s decision by Norway, Ireland and Spain to recognise the state of Palestine shows how the line of thinking is changing even in the West.

The May 26 Rafah massacre has triggered sharp responses from world leaders, even from Israel’s allies. French President Emmanuel Macron was “outraged” by the attack. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the “barbaric” attack and vowed to hold Israel accountable. The U.S., Israel’s strongest ally, did not condemn the attack, but asked Israel to do everything to protect civilian lives.    

Mr. Netanyahu appears to be irrationally adamant today. His only focus is on a war that has done little to bolster Israel’s security. Israel has not met its military objectives; its deterrence has been broken twice — first by Hamas and then by Iran ; peace with Arabs stands shattered (Saudi Arabia today says “it is absolutely necessary that Israel accepts that it cannot exist without the existence of a Palestinian State”; it stands isolated in the world, there could be an arrest warrant against Ms netanyahu and Gollant in the coming days; and there IS a ruling by the ICJ against the way it is conducting the war.

As The Hindu noted in an editorial on May 27, by seeking to punish the entire Palestinian population in Gaza for what Hamas did on October 7, Mr. Netanyahu is rendering Israel’s global standing weaker.

Presentation & Script: Stanly Johny

Production : Gayatri Menon

Video: Thamodharan B

Smoke billows from the skyline of Gaza, as charred and injured bodies lie strewn around a destroyed ‘safety zone’ camp. Israel’s military operations in Rafah this week killed 45 civilians and injured hundreds, mostly women and children. In response, outraged international communities are condemning Israeli attacks in Rafah and calling for ceasefire. 

The outcry has been championed on social media through the ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ campaign, shared by over 46 million users including celebrities, activists and politicians, it has brought large-scale attention to the crisis in Gaza. 

Yet, the AI-generated campaign image, devoid of any violence or destruction, has raised criticisms about performative activism and erasing the brutal reality of the Gaza crisis. 

Experts say the image could have been generated by AI to bypass Meta’s content moderation policies and ensure that it doesn’t get taken down for depiction of violence or destruction.

However, the viral image has drawn criticism as many are questioning the ethics of using an AI-generated image that does not show any of the brutalities in Rafah, especially when large amounts of footage of death and destruction are being shared daily by civilians, aid workers and journalists on ground in Gaza. 

Those criticising the trend have blamed the “sanitisation” of the conflict to make it social-media-friendly and risk erasing the truth of how grave of a crisis Palestinians are currently in. The lack of any human beings in the ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ image does not aptly capture the atrocities being committed against the displaced people of Gaza, they argued.

“Palestinians didn’t go through and document the genocide happening just for us to use [an] AI image to raise awareness,” an X user said.

i know people mean well but the palestinians didn’t go through and document the genocide happening just for us to use AI image to raise awareness on what’s happening.

bear witness to their resilience, resistance, and eventual liberation.

all eyes on rafah. free palestine.
pic.twitter.com/vt05ob5vUU

— R (@arhcamt) May 29, 2024

The AI-generated ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ campaign image features unnaturally symmetrical and pristine tent camps with no humans in sight.

Another concern is that the campaign is veering towards performative activism, drawing parallels with the ‘black square’ Black Lives Matter social media trend in 2020. Many are sharing the ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ image without doing anything else to show solidarity with Palestinians. A charged levelled mainly towards celebrities, critics claim that sharing the image after months of silence on the issue may be a way to avoid backlash for not supporting the cause earlier. 

Another X user alleged that celebrities are partaking in the trend because it is “aesthetically pleasing”, “vague and removed from reality”. 

I feel like the main reason celebrities are using this AI image for All Eyes on Rafah is because it’s “aesthetically pleasing” and now seen as trendy. This along with it being vague and removed from reality.

This is not an AI generated genocide. Its real. Use real photos. https://t.co/0VT10udK8B

— Kristin Siân Bingham (@KristinBingham) May 29, 2024

One user labelled the trend as “slacktivism”, and instead urged people to donate and take part in boycotts. 

imagine if every single individual sharing the All Eyes on Rafah post instead shared and donated to the PCRF relief fund. What Palestinians actually need for food, safety and border help. Criticism is totally valid for people ignoring boycotts/donations but sharing AI photos.

— nmm (@niamhmarym) May 28, 2024

To combat this ‘slacktivism’, people have begun sharing actionable ways to support Gazans instead – by signing petitions, joining demonstrations etc. 

If your friends shared the AI “All Eyes On Rafah” pic and it was the first time they’ve done something during this war, encourage them to go to https://t.co/WqnKDia4WR and take 30 seconds and email their elected officials:

— jordan (@JordanUhl) May 29, 2024

Visceral scenes of death and destruction have been the reality for Palestinians since the Israel-Hamas conflict began 8 months ago, and it seems unlikely to end anytime soon. Israel’s announced today that they expect the conflict to continue for another 7 months, until the end of 2024. Amid global protests, student encampments, and boycotts, social media has become another avenue to express dissent. 

Palestinians prepare to evacuate, after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 11, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on May 11 as it prepared to expand its operation, saying it was also moving into an area in northern Gaza where Hamas has regrouped.

Fighting is escalating across the enclave with heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of Rafah, leaving the crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and forcing more than 110,000 people to flee north.

Israel’s move into Rafah has so far been short of the full-scale invasion that it has planned.

The United Nations and other agencies have warned for weeks that an Israeli assault on Rafah, which borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, would cripple humanitarian operations and cause a disastrous surge in civilian casualties. More than 1.4 million Palestinians — half of Gaza’s population — have been sheltering in Rafah, most after fleeing Israel’s offensives elsewhere.

Army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, told Palestinians in Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya cities and the surrounding areas to leave their homes and head to shelters in the west of Gaza City, warning that people were in “a dangerous combat zone” and that Israel was going to strike with “great force”.

Heavy fighting is underway in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults. Battles erupted this week in the Zeitoun area on the outskirts of Gaza City, in the northern part of the territory. Northern Gaza was the first target of the ground offensive. Israel said late last year that it had mostly dismantled Hamas in the area.

At least 19 people, including eight women and eight children, were killed overnight in Central Gaza in three different strikes that hit the towns of Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al Balah, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah and an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies.

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Much of Gaza has been destroyed and some 80% of Gaza’s population has been driven from their homes.