A FORMER judge on the UN’s top international court has warned of global “lawlessness” if Israel ignores orders to prevent a genocide in Gaza.

Former Jordanian prime minister Awn Al-Khasawneh, who served on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 2000 to 2011, said the world faced the choice of following international law or falling “into anarchy”.

Speaking on Alex Salmond’s new Turkish Tea Talk programme on TRT World, Al-Khasawneh said: “Unfortunately we are slipping towards lawlessness […] and you can see this all around you.

“Look at the lack of respect towards international courts and tribunals, the abuse of the [Security Council] veto power, the double standards […] the excesses that are being committed in warfare reminiscent of barbaric times, the denial of water and food to civilian populations.

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He added: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

It comes after Israel was ordered by the ICJ to prevent carrying out genocide in its bombardment of Gaza.

More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli onslaught and on Thursday, Israel said it would more 1.4 million displaced people from Rafah to “humanitarian enclaves” before launching an offensive there.

Rafah was one of the last habitable places in Gaza, with much of the rest of the region reduced to rubble and there are grave concerns about the human cost of an Israeli offensive in the city.

Asked about the South African case against Israel at the ICJ, Al-Khasawneh added: “I have high hopes in the court doing what is required of it […] there is a choice of continuing and consolidation of the international law or the slippage into anarchy and the ICJ has a very important role in that and will be judged accordingly … the people of Palestine throughout have not got much in the way of justice from the Security Council, that’s obvious, and it is obvious why it is the case.”