The presidency in South Africa announced today, Tuesday, that the country has submitted an urgent request to the International Court of Justice to consider Israel's decision to expand its military operations in Rafah and to determine whether the court's authority is required to prevent further violations of the rights of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On its part, France announced adopting measures against Israeli settlers involved in acts of violence in the West Bank.

In a related context, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in a press statement, held the Israeli government and the occupation army fully and directly responsible for the lives of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

It called for a transparent and clear UN and international role in pressuring the Israeli government to force it to provide protection for them and to ensure the sufficient entry of aid to all areas of the Gaza Strip, especially since the occupation forces began escalating their bombardment and aggression on the Rafah area, without committing to securing the lives of civilians, coinciding with a noticeable increase in the numbers of martyrs and injured.

On its part, UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Al-Rifai said that the situation in Palestinian Rafah is a humanitarian disaster amid the overcrowding of displaced persons from the north and the scarcity of aid to the sector despite Security Council calls to expand it.

UNRWA spokesperson confirmed in a press statement the growing fears of a million and a half Palestinians amid the increasing Israeli raids in Rafah, including those displaced from the military operations in the north in search of security and safety.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, affirmed that the possibility of any full Israeli military incursion into Rafah would be terrifying, given the potential exposure of a very large number of civilians, most of whom are children and women, to killing and injury.

The UN official said, according to the United Nations Media Center, that about 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded in the Palestinian city of Rafah, with nowhere else to flee to, "and I have pointed out the unimaginable suffering faced by Palestinians in Gaza. Today, unfortunately, given the killings and destruction that have occurred so far in Gaza, it is entirely possible to imagine what awaits us in Rafah."

He warned that this would have serious repercussions on the entire Gaza Strip - including hundreds of thousands of people at risk of severe hunger and famine in the north.

Volker Türk said that his office has repeatedly warned of acts that violate the laws of war, noting that the possibility of such an operation being carried out in Rafah - under the current conditions - threatens more atrocious crimes. Türk called on Israel to comply with the legally binding orders issued by the International Court of Justice, and "the full extent of international humanitarian law."

Volker Türk stressed the necessity that the world must not allow this to happen, and that "those with influence" must "rein in" rather than "enable," affirming the importance of an immediate ceasefire, the release of all "hostages," and "there must be a renewed collective determination to reach a political solution."