'Never before has Israel come under such sustained, legal and diplomatic pressure from the international community'
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00:00 It is that Israel is indeed pressing ahead with its offensive in Rafa.
00:04 That's in defiance of global calls for it to halt its military operations.
00:09 Eyewitnesses saying that tanks have been spotted pushing into the heart of the city.
00:13 They were spotted at the Al-Auda mosque, as you can see here on this map,
00:17 that this is a landmark in central Rafa.
00:21 Elsewhere, Israeli forces also are reportedly in complete control
00:26 of the Philadelphia corridor.
00:27 Now, that's a narrow strip of land that runs right along Gaza's border
00:32 with Egypt, right up to the Mediterranean Sea.
00:35 Strategically important because it was created to prevent the transfer,
00:39 the smuggling of goods between Egypt and Gaza.
00:43 And yesterday as well, Israeli forces accused once again of striking a camp
00:47 for displaced people, this time in Al-Mawasi.
00:51 That's a evacuation zone just west of Rafa.
00:54 Gaza health officials saying at least 21 Palestinians were killed.
00:58 The IDF has vehemently denied those reports, but it does come on the back
01:02 of international condemnation of another strike carried out by the IDF
01:07 on Sunday night in which 45 Palestinians were killed,
01:10 amongst them women and children.
01:13 Right. Well, we've seen the ICJ, the International Court of Justice.
01:18 So it ordered Israel to halt its Rafa offensive last week.
01:22 Earlier, we heard from the ICC, the chief prosecutor requesting arrest
01:26 warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and top Israeli leaders.
01:30 So the pressure on Israel is mounting.
01:33 But is it having any impact?
01:35 Well, Carys, I think never before has Israel come under such sustained
01:39 legal and diplomatic pressure from the international community.
01:44 Let's just remind viewers of the pressure that Israel is under.
01:47 You can see there on your screen more than a week ago,
01:49 the International Criminal Court, as you mentioned, requested arrest warrants
01:53 for Benjamin Netanyahu and you of Golan, the Israeli prime minister
01:57 and Israeli defense minister that puts those two men in the same company
02:00 of leaders like Vladimir Putin and Omar al-Bashir, the former dictator of Sudan.
02:06 Then last Friday, the ICJ, that's the UN's top court,
02:09 ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafa.
02:13 And just yesterday, of course, we had those three European countries,
02:17 Spain, Ireland and Norway, formally recognizing Palestinian statehood,
02:21 a move that's largely seen as being symbolic.
02:25 Now, it's very unlikely that the ICC will ever get Benjamin Netanyahu
02:30 or you of Golan in the dock.
02:32 The US and UK have already criticized the ICC over that move.
02:35 It's also equally unlikely that Israel will heed the ICJ's ruling,
02:42 the UN's top court, to halt its offensive in Rafa.
02:45 Remember that the ICJ's rulings are legally binding,
02:49 but it has no enforcement mechanism.
02:52 So the question you may be asking then is what is the impact of this pressure?
02:56 Well, in the short term, it won't stop fighting on the ground.
03:00 That means that Israel will continue its offensive in Rafa.
03:04 There will probably be more civilian casualties.
03:07 However, there will be more and more reputational damage done to Israel.
03:12 And more and more Israel is looking like an isolated country,
03:16 almost entirely reliant on the US for support.
03:20 So then the other question you may ask is why is Israel
03:23 continuing its offensive in Rafa then? What does it have to gain?
03:26 Well, we can to answer that question, we can look at what Benjamin Netanyahu
03:31 said earlier this week when he spoke to the Israeli parliament.
03:34 And the key phrase there is right at the end.
03:37 I don't intend to end the war before every goal has been achieved.
03:41 And the key takeaway here is that after seven months of war,
03:44 Israel hasn't achieved its military objectives.
03:47 Top Hamas leaders are still at large.
03:50 Hostages are still being held.
03:53 And if Netanyahu stops the war now, then right wing members of his coalition
03:58 will probably withdraw.
04:00 That would cause his government to collapse.
04:02 So a lot of this is down to Benjamin Netanyahu's political survival.
04:05 Right. And meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council met Tuesday
04:10 to discuss that strike that you mentioned that hit Rafa on Sunday.
04:14 What came out of that?
04:16 So what happened last night was that Algeria tabled a draft resolution
04:20 to members of the Security Council in that resolution.
04:23 It called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages.
04:28 It drew on the ICJ ruling, calling on Israel to halt its offensive.
04:33 The draft resolution also said that the catastrophic situation in Gaza
04:38 was a threat to international peace and security.
04:40 That's some of the toughest language we've seen yet coming out of the Security
04:44 Council with regards to the war in Gaza.
04:47 Diplomats saying there could be a vote in the next few days on that resolution.
04:50 However, what tends to happen in these cases is that Israel
04:54 usually enjoys the protection of the US,
04:57 which sits as a permanent member of the Security Council.
05:00 So it has veto power.
05:02 The US has so far shielded Israel from three resolutions on Gaza
05:06 using its veto power, but Washington does occasionally abstain from votes.
05:11 That's its way of exerting pressure on its ally.
05:15 It did that notably in March.
05:16 You'll recall when the Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire
05:19 between Israel and Hamas.
05:21 Otherwise, what the US has done in the past and what it may very well do
05:25 this time is to veto the resolution and to propose its own draft resolution
05:30 with watered down language in the form of a compromise.