Top UN court opens hearings

THE HAGUE, Feb 19 (AP/Reuters): Historic hearings were set to open on Monday at the United Nations' top court into the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state.

Palestinian representatives will speak first as the International Court of Justice begins hearing legal arguments following a request submitted by the U.N. General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion into Israel's policies in the occupied territories.

Though the case opens at the court's Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel's open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem.

The Palestinian legal team will tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians' right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid.

"We want to hear new words from the court," said Omar Awadallah, the head of the U.N. organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

After the Palestinians address the court on Monday, an unprecedented 51 countries and three international organizations will speak. The court will likely take months to issue its opinion.

Israel is not scheduled to speak during the hearings, but could submit a written statement.

Israel plans 6-week drive

to hit Hamas in Rafah

Israel expects to continue full-scale military operations in Gaza for another six to eight weeks as it prepares to mount a ground invasion of the enclave's southernmost city of Rafah, four officials familiar with the strategy said.

Military chiefs believe they can significantly damage Hamas' remaining capabilities in that time, paving the way for a shift to a lower-intensity phase of targeted airstrikes and special forces operations, according to the two Israeli and two regional officials who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely.

There is little chance that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government will heed international criticism to call off a Rafah ground assault, said Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and a negotiator in the first and second Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, in the 1980s and 2000s.

"Rafah is the last bastion of Hamas control and there remain battalions in Rafah which Israel must dismantle to achieve its goals in this war," he added.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Friday that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were planning operations in Rafah targeting Hamas fighters, command centres and tunnels, though gave no timeline for the campaign. He stressed that "extraordinary measures" were being taken to avoid civilian casualties.

"There were 24 regional battalions in Gaza - we have dismantled 18 of them," he told a media briefing. "Now, Rafah is the next Hamas centre of gravity." World leaders fear a humanitarian catastrophe.

Trapped between the two sworn enemies are more than a million Palestinian civilians crammed into the city on the Egyptian border, with nowhere left to run, after fleeing Israeli attacks that have laid waste to much of the enclave.

In a past week of high diplomatic tension, US President Joe Biden phoned the Israeli leader twice to warn him against launching a military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to ensure the safety of civilians. Netanyahu himself said civilians would be allowed to leave the battle zone before the offensive, even as he vowed "complete victory".