Hearings will begin at The Hague on Thursday in a case claiming Israel’s Gaza war is genocide.
The International Court of Justice will hear a complaint brought by South Africa, which is asking for urgent ‘provisional measures’ and asking the UN court to act urgently “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the genocide convention, which continues to be violated with impunity”.
Since the 7 October attacks, Israel has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, the majority are reported to be women or children.
Israel has called the accusations “baseless” and a “blood libel”. It says it is acting in self-defense, to protect Israelis by destroying Hamas. The US has dismissed the case as „meritlesss.”
The UN’s Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, has estimated that 1.9 million people have been internally displaced by the war in Gaza – nearly 85% of the population – while tens of thousands of buildings have been destroyed.
Genocide cases, which are notoriously hard to prove, can take years to resolve, but South Africa is asking the court to speedily implement “provisional measures” and “order Israel to cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video clip saying Israel was fighting Hamas, not the Palestinian population, and was acting in full compliance with international law. “Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population,” he said.
Both sides’ legal teams have about three hours to make their case. South Africa does that on Thursday Israel will respond on Friday.
