The UN’s top court stopped short of calling for Israel to end its war in Gaza on Friday but demanded it take immediate action to prevent a genocide.

Israel was given a month to prove its forces were not in breach of the Genocide Convention in the initial ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Presiding judge Joan Donoghue, the court’s president, said the provisional warning was necessary because “the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the court renders its final judgement.”

A 17-judge panel also ruled that Israel must allow more aid to flow into the coastal territory amid significantly deteriorating humanitarian conditions there.

Judge Donoghue’s ruling was the initial step following a legal challenge by South Africa that accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

“The court is not required to ascertain whether any violations of Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention have occurred,” she told a packed courtroom.

“That will happen at a later stage of the process.”

While the ICJ has no means to enforce its ruling, the well-watched legal case will be used to build pressure on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the conflict.

In her ruling, Judge Donoghue quoted a senior UN official who recently claimed: “Gaza has become a place of death and despair.”

Israel has vehemently denied allegations of genocide throughout its military campaign in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 terror attack, during which 1,200 were killed and 240 taken hostage.

Mr Netanyahu said the accusations were “not only false, it’s outrageous and decent people everywhere should reject it”.

In her 50-minute address to the court, Judge Donoghue quoted statements from Israeli leaders used by South Africa’s legal team to prove Israel’s alleged genocidal intentions.

She first cited Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, who told troops in the opening days of the conflict: “We are fighting human animals.”

Claims by Israel Katz, who is now foreign minister, that water and energy supplies to Gaza would be shut off until the end of the conflict were also used.

The American judge said the statements were “sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible”.

She also cited claims by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health department that more than 25,000 people had been killed in the territory since the start of the war.