The United Nations top court ordered Israel on Friday to halt its military offensive in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. But the court stopped short of ordering a cease-fire throughout Gaza.

By a 13-2 vote, judges of the International Court of Justice, seated in The Hague, ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” in conformity with its obligations under the Geneva Convention.