ICJ orders end to Gaza offensive: 'Enduring sense of victimhood' in Israel

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00:00 It would be wrong to say that the entire response has been hostile.

00:04 There has been some moderate, some considered response.

00:08 Those who are pointing out in the media, for instance, today that if Israel had given more

00:13 consideration about how this conflict were to end, what the endgame should be, and if

00:18 ministers on the hard right hadn't made such strong statements about the situation in Gaza,

00:24 and if there hadn't been attacks by settlers on aid trucks going into Gaza, this might

00:29 not have happened.

00:30 But by and large, it has to be said, this has been a very angry reaction from the Israeli

00:35 public and from the Israeli media, and of course from politicians, ranging from Benjamin

00:40 Netanyahu, the prime minister, calling the case brought by South Africa against Israel

00:46 false and outrageous, to those on the hard right comparing it to support for Nazis, and

00:56 those simply saying, look, you know, we are not going to stop, nothing.

00:59 Benny Gantz, one of the members of the war club, nothing will stop us completing our

01:05 operation anywhere in Gaza, including in Rafa.

01:11 The argument being that they haven't finished their military operation.

01:15 Israel was attacked first by Hamas.

01:16 This is an operation not against the people of Gaza, they said, not against Palestinians.

01:22 It's against Hamas.

01:24 It's an argument that is increasingly falling on deaf ears, it has to be said, in the international

01:31 community.

01:32 But in Israel, there seems to be a sense, a growing sense of victimhood.

01:35 You know, why are we being singled out in this way?

01:38 Why, for instance, in 2018, did the International Court of Justice not cramp down on the Myanmar

01:45 government over the Rohingyas?

01:48 Why didn't they try to stop a genocide there?

01:50 And this sense of victimhood is all pervasive at the moment.

01:55 Yeah, and going along with that, Rob, hours after the ruling from the ICJ, fighting did

02:01 continue in Gaza, Israel conducting strikes across the Strip.

02:05 Tell us more.

02:06 Yes, I mean, within hours, if not less than that, Israel was bombing targets inside central

02:15 Rafa, hitting roads and housing there.

02:20 There are reports that Israeli tanks have now advanced towards the center of Rafa, not

02:26 quite there yet.

02:27 The city itself is effectively divided into three areas now, the east of the city a major

02:34 combat zone, the central part of the city deserted, because most people have left, and

02:41 the western part of the city crowded with hundreds of thousands of people who have fled

02:48 the fighting in the eastern parts of the city.

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