Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on Friday whether or not they will grant emergency measures against Israel following accusations by South Africa that the Israeli military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide, Reuters reports.

The United Nations’ top court has issued a statement saying the 17-judge panel will hand down its ruling in court on January 26 at 1200 GMT.

In the ruling on Friday, the ICJ will not deal with the main question if Israel is committing genocide.

The court will just look at possible emergency measures, meant as a kind of restraining order to prevent a dispute from getting worse while the court looks at the full case, which usually takes years.

If the ICJ does decide to issue emergency measures, it is not bound to order exactly what South Africa asked for.

Rulings by the court are legally binding and without appeal, but the court has no way to enforce them.