South Africa on Thursday accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians and pleaded with the United Nations’s top court to force the country to stop its military operation, citing Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant’s own words as evidence.
South African officials argued before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, that Gallant’s past comments that Israel would impose a complete siege on the territory because Israel was fighting “human animals” proved the country’s intent to commit genocide.
During opening arguments, South African lawyers claimed the latest escalation of the war, which has already seen thousands of casualties, is part of Israel’s decadeslong calculated campaign to oppress the Palestinian people.
Israel, which has denied the accusation vehemently, will present its defense on Friday.
To constitute genocide per the United Nations’s Genocide Convention, South Africa must prove Israel’s intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
The two-day hearing is expected to highlight the atrocities taking place in the Middle East and underscore how one of the world’s longest and most intractable conflicts has bled into the international community.
More than 23,400 people have been killed in Gaza in the past four months. Another 60,000 have been injured, and thousands more are missing or presumed dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli military officials said at least 189 soldiers have died during the ground invasion of Gaza. They added that 1,200 people were killed and 240 hostages were taken after Hamas’s initial attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel declared war one day later.
At the hearing, South Africa pressed the International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip. South Africa claimed Israel’s goal is to bring about “the destruction of the population” of Gaza. It is also seeking the U.S. to force Israel to rescind evacuation orders and allow people caught in the crossfire to receive food, water, clothing, and shelter.
“The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of the state,” said Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, an advocate of the High Court of South Africa, adding that Israel’s political and military leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were among the chief “genocidal inciters.”
“This is evident from the way in which this military attack is being conducted,” Ngcukaitobi said, per Reuters.
Israel denied the claims and accused South Africa of doing Hamas’s bidding.
“We have seen today one of the biggest shows of hypocrisy in history when South Africa became the legal arm of a terror organization, Hamas,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said.
To hear the case, the international court’s 15-judge panel was expanded to 17, with an additional judge appointed by each side. Israel offered up Aharon Barak, a former president of its Supreme Court who fled Nazi-occupied Lithuania as a child, while South Africa named Dikgang Moseneke, a former deputy chief justice of its Constitutional Court.
The United States, Israel’s biggest backer and most vocal supporter, has spoken out against the international hearing, calling it meritless and counterproductive.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added that South Africa’s petition is “completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also slammed the case.
“Today, again, we saw an upside-down world, in which the State of Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide,” he said in a statement.
Hamas, on the other hand, welcomed South Africa’s complaints against Israel. The group also called on Israel to “stop the aggression” and said it looked forward to “a decision that does justice to victims.”
Decisions by the court, which is the United Nations’s highest judicial body, are binding. Enforcing the decision is decidedly tougher, and the U.N. has only a few options. On top of that, reaching a final decision could stretch several years.
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Israeli military operations in recent days have focused on the Khan Yunis area and urban refugee camps. Hundreds of people have been killed in strikes across the territory and in places Israeli officials told people to seek refuge, which has only added to the confusion and outrage.
The international hearing is taking place at the same time U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been on a swing tour of the Middle East, seeking to shore up support for a postwar Gaza. He met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday before heading to Bahrain. He will wrap up his plans on Thursday after visiting Cairo.
