The United Nation’s main peace policymaker, the Security Council, will meet next week over the decision by the global body’s top court calling for Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, the council’s presidency announced Friday.

The Wednesday meeting was called by Algeria, whose ministry of foreign affairs said it would give “binding effect to the pronouncement of the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, on the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation.”

The ICJ on Friday said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in its war with Hamas and allow aid into Gaza, but stopped short of calling for an end to the fighting.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed the ICJ statement even as he affirmed that his nation’s commitment to international law was “unwavering.”

He said the commitment exists independently of any ICJ proceedings, as does Israel’s inherent right to defend itself against the genocidal terrorists of Hamas.

Hold on tight

The decision “gives the clear message that to do all the things that they (the ICJ) are asking for, you need a ceasefire for it to happen,” said Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour.

“So fasten your seat belts,” he said, hinting that the Arab Group, represented on the council by Algeria, would push for a ceasefire.

The Security Council, long divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, has agreed to only two resolutions since the 7 October Hamas attacks sparked the latest fighting.

In December, it demanded aid deliveries “at scale” to Gaza’s besieged population, while Israel’s ally, the United States, has kept out calls for a ceasefire despite international pressure.

The current fighting started with the unprecedented attack by Hamas that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel of mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas and launched a military offensive that the health ministry in Gaza says has killed at least 26,083 people, about 70 percent of them women and children.

‘Do everything’

The ICJ, based in The Hague, while refraining from ordering an immediate halt to the almost four-month-old war, said Israel must do everything to “prevent the commission of all acts within the scope” of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

In a statement, Katz said the ICJ’s charge of genocide leveled against Israel at the ICJ was false and outrageous.

It constitutes a shameful exploitation of the Genocide Convention that is not only wholly unfounded in fact and in law, but is morally repugnant, according to Israel’s top diplomat.

As the court recognized, on 7 October Hamas and other terrorist groups committed unspeakable atrocities against Israel and its citizens, Katz said.

He added that like every country, Israel has an inherent and inalienable right to defend itself against the terrorist onslaught it still faces.

“The vile attempt by South Africa to deny Israel this fundamental right was justly rejected,” he added.

South Africa filed the case against Israel in the ICJ.

Katz indicated that Israel remains committed, “as it has repeatedly affirmed and demonstrated, to act in accordance with its rights and obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law. This commitment is unwavering, independent of any ICJ proceedings.”

With reports from AFP