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Key Points
- South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
- Israel has rejected the accusations as baseless.
- The UN court is hearing South Africa’s arguments on Thursday and Israel’s response to the allegations on Friday.
A top United Nations court has opened hearings in a case in which South Africa demands an emergency suspension of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, where it says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing South Africa’s arguments on Thursday and Israel’s response to the allegations on Friday. It is expected to rule on the emergency measures later this month.
The court will not rule at that time on the genocide allegations – those proceedings could take years.
“Our opposition to the ongoing slaughter of the people of Gaza has driven us as a country to approach the ICJ,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said of the genocide accusations, rejected by Israel.
With the politically charged case attracting global attention, supporters of both sides of the case planned marches and rallies in The Hague.
Thousands of pro-Israel protesters marched in freezing temperatures in the city centre early on Thursday, carrying Israeli and Dutch flags and posters with images of people taken hostage by Hamas.
The court’s decisions are final and without appeal but the court has no way to enforce them.
Israel has rejected the accusations of genocide as baseless and accused Pretoria of playing “advocate of the devil” for Hamas, the group it is waging war against in Gaza.
South Africa and Israel are both parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention, which obliges them to not commit genocide and also to prevent and punish it.
The treaty defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which the group’s fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took over 200 people hostage. It was an escalation in a long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Since then, the offensive has , and almost all of its 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes at least once, causing a humanitarian catastrophe.
In its court filings, South Africa cites Israel’s failure to provide food, water, medicine and other essential humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian enclave.
It also points to the sustained bombing campaign which has killed more than 23,000 people according to Gaza health authorities.
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