Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and needs to end “as rapidly as possible”, the UN’s top court said Friday.

The UN’s General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in late 2022 to give an “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.

“The court has found that Israel’s continued presence in the Palestinian Territories is illegal,” ICJ presiding judge Nawaf Salam said Friday, adding: “Israel must end the occupation as rapidly as possible.”

“The Court has found that Israel’s… continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal,” Salam said.

“The State of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” the judge said.

The ICJ held a week-long session in February to hear submissions from countries following the request – supported by most countries within the assembly.

Most speakers during the hearings called on Israel to end its 57-year occupation. They warned a prolonged occupation posed an “extreme danger” to stability in the Middle East and beyond.

But the United States said Israel should not be legally obliged to withdraw without taking its “very real security needs” into account.

Israel did not take part in the oral hearings.

Instead, it submitted a written contribution in which it described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious”.