The United Nations’ top court Friday ordered Israel to take steps to limit death and destruction in its war in Gaza, but stopped short of demanding a cease-fire.

The International Court of Justice issued the ruling in a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. South Africa had asked the court to issue an emergency decree ordering Israel to halt its military campaign until the case is decided.

The court did not grant that request. But in a win for South Africa, it declared that the genocide case may proceed and ordered Israel in the meantime to refrain from killing Palestinian civilians and to allow in more humanitarian aid. The court also said Israel must act to prevent and punish incitement to genocide and called on Israel to report back within a month to show that it is complying with the measures.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come under increasing pressure at home and abroad to wind down the war, reacted angrily to the court’s decision to proceed with the case and vowed to press on with the war against the Hamas militant group in Gaza..

“We will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people,” he said.

The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority welcomed the court’s decision, which it said had “ruled in favor of humanity and international law.”

The court has no way of enforcing its order, and Israel does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction, although it sent lawyers to argue its case.

Yuval Shany, an expert in international law at the Israel Democracy Institute and Hebrew University, said the court decision is not likely to trigger major changes in Israel’s war strategy. The nation’s leaders have maintained that they are doing everything possible to avoid civilian causalities as they hunt Hamas combatants in Gaza, and that they’re already allowing in sufficient amounts of humanitarian aid.

Shany, who said the court ruling “navigated between two extreme positions,” said he believes Israel will comply with the court’s request for reporting on its actions. But he noted that the reporting process opens up the door to further legal maneuvering by South Africa, which will have a chance to respond to the reports and which could ask the court a second time to order a halt to fighting.

“Israel is now under a stronger scrutiny,” Shany said.

Israel’s ongoing offensive was launched after the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by hundreds of Hamas militants. Israel says more than 1,100 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed in the incursion, and more than 200 people were kidnapped.

Israel’s relentless aerial bombardment and ground campaign in Gaza has killed more than 26,000 people, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. The figure does not differentiate between combatants and noncombatants, but officials say that two-thirds of the victims have been women and children.

Nearly all of the Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and food, water and medicine are in scant supply.

South Africa went to the International Court of Justice on Dec. 29 to formally accuse Israel of committing genocide.

At a two-day hearing this month, South Africa laid out evidence, including public statements by top Israeli officials, that Israel sought to “destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”

Israel dismissed the filing as a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.” It rejected the genocide accusation, saying it is at war With Hamas, not Gazans, and asked the court to dismiss the charges.

The case may take years to be decided. In the interim, South Africa asked the judges to issue calls for an immediate cease-fire to protect Palestinians in Gaza.

In Friday’s interim ruling, the 17-judge panel upheld South Africa’s right to take Israel to court even though it is not a direct party to the conflict.

The ruling, read aloud by the court’s president, Joan E. Donoghue, expressed sympathy for civilians in Gaza and cited a United Nations official who said: “Gaza has become a place of death and despair. … Gaza has simply become uninhabitable.”

“The court is acutely aware of the extent of the human tragedy that is unfolding in the region and is deeply concerned about the continuing loss of life and human suffering,” Donoghue said.

She also quoted statements from Israeli leaders, including Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, who told soldiers in the opening days of the war: “We are fighting human animals. … Gaza won’t return to what it was before.”

Responding to the court’s findings on Friday, Gallant wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter,
that Israel “does not need to be lectured on morality” by the court, and dismissed South Africa’s case as antisemitic.

Israelis have responded with shock and anger to South Africa’s case, saying they have a right to defend themselves from what they believe to be genocidal attacks by Hamas.

Kobi Michael, a professor at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said many here believe they are held to an unfair standard internationally.

“Do you think that the approach toward Israel with regard to the war in Gaza is similar to the approach to the Americans, the British and other Western countries that were part of the coalition in Iraq or in Afghanistan?” he said. “It’s unfair.”

In Ramallah, the city in the occupied West Bank that serves as the de facto capital of the Palestinian territories, people gathered at a municipal hall to watch the court hearing live.

Laila Abbas, a filmmaker, said she was glad that the court had agreed to proceed with the genocide case. But given the desperate state of civilians in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from the fighting and are living in tents, she believed “more decisive and immediate measures should have been been taken.”

“The decision of The Hague won’t help the people in Gaza immediately,” she said. “And next week in Gaza it will be very cold.”

Special correspondent Asala Zreiqi contributed from Ramallah, West Bank.