Confused by the ICJ’s decision on Gaza? Blame the judges’ deliberate ambiguity
The key sentence in the court’s ruling is a non-definitive three-clause construct. And the judges themselves don’t agree on what it is they are requiring Israel to do
... after the court published the minority opinion documents – by Justice Barak and the court vice president, Julia Sebutinde of Uganda – along with the opinions written by three of the majority judges, it became clear that four of the five judges who addressed this issue consider that Israel is allowed to continue its military action in Rafah, as long as this action does not put the Palestinian population at risk of annihilation, either in full or in part.
