LONDON 

The Irish foreign minister welcomed an International Court of Justice ruling Friday that ordered Israel to immediately halt its Rafah offensive, open the Rafah crossing and allow access to international fact-finding missions.

Micheal Martin said in a statement that the Court's orders are "crystal clear," stressing that they "must be complied with."

Noting that the international community has urged Israel not to initiate a ground offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Martin underlined that Israel has rather chosen to "disregard these requests."

"But it cannot choose to disregard the orders from the International Court of Justice," said Martin, adding the orders are legally binding.

"It is my heartfelt hope that we are reaching a turning point in this devastating conflict," he said.

Martin urged all parties to intensify efforts to secure an immediate cease-fire, the unconditional release of hostages and massively scaled-up access and distribution of humanitarian aid "with the utmost urgency.”

"It is time to take concrete and irreversible steps to implement a two-state solution," he said, noting that the issue will be his top agenda item when he meets European and Arab partners in Brussels in the coming days.

On Friday, the top UN court, besides reaffirming its Jan. 26 and March 28 orders, told Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action” in Rafah “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Israel has also been ordered to “maintain open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” and “take effective measures to ensure the unimpeded access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide.”

More than 35,800 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and over 80,290 others injured since October following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.

More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.