Israel’s top leaders want to “destroy” Gaza, according to the highest level of government, as the UN’s top court has been told.
South African lawyers said that Israel is killing many people and they are taking their case to the International Court of Justice.
South Africa wants the court to tell Israel to stop its fighting in Gaza.
Israel will present its defence on Friday and has strongly denied the accusations as being without evidence.
The court will only give its opinion on the genocide allegation and many people are paying attention to it.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a lawyer in South Africa, said that Israel’s intention to commit genocide is clear from the way they are conducting their military attack.
“He said that the plan to destroy Gaza has been supported by the top leaders of the country. ”
Adila Hassim from South Africa said that every day the Palestinian people are facing a lot of loss, including lives, homes, respect, and their basic rights.
“Only a decision from this court can make the suffering stop. ”
South Africa said that Israel’s actions were meant to destroy many Palestinian people.
Israel will show how it defends itself on Friday. It has said before that it is justified in attacking the Gaza Strip because it is responding to Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October.
On Thursday, South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said that no attack can justify breaking the Genocide Convention.
Israel has agreed to the Genocide Convention of 1948. This agreement means they promise to stop genocide and take action to prevent it from happening.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry, Lior Haiat, said that South Africa’s case has completely twisted the truth about what’s happening in Gaza. He said that Hamas attackers have entered Israel and killed, executed, massacred, raped, and kidnapped Israeli citizens.
He said Israel will keep its people safe under the rules of the world, while telling the difference between Hamas fighters and regular people.
The ICJ is the top court of the United Nations, located in The Hague in the Netherlands. The decisions of the ICJ are supposed to be followed by countries like Israel and South Africa, but they cannot be forced to follow them.
In 2022, the court told Russia to stop fighting in Ukraine right away, but they didn’t listen.
According to the law, genocide means doing something on purpose to destroy a group of people because of their nationality, race, or religion.
There were fights outside the Peace Palace, where the ICJ is, as police tried to separate Palestinian and Israeli supporters.
Many people holding Palestinian flags came to the ICJ and asked for a stop to the fighting. Israeli supporters put up a big TV to show pictures of the people still being kept captive in Gaza.
The police put red and white tape outside the ICJ to try to make the chaotic scenes outside more organized.
Inside the court, the Israeli delegation is listening to South Africa’s lawyers accuse the country’s forces of committing genocide in Gaza, which is very different from the formal atmosphere in the court.
Israel’s group will talk about their right to protect themselves under the law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel does not plan to kick out the people of Gaza or take over the land forever.
The ICJ can’t punish people for genocide, like the ICC can, but its decisions are important to the UN and other global groups.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that South Africa is taking action against the killing of people in Gaza by going to the ICJ.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the accusations were terrible and ridiculous.
“We will go to the International Court of Justice and proudly present our case for using self-defense under humanitarian law,” he said.
He said that the Israeli army is doing their best in difficult situations to avoid any unintended harm to civilians.
The ICJ may make a quick decision on whether Israel should stop its military campaign in South Africa’s request. But it could take a long time for a final decision on whether Israel is committing genocide.
South Africa strongly disagrees with Israel’s military operation in Gaza, and its ruling African National Congress has always supported the Palestinian cause.
It relates its fight against apartheid to the struggle of racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa, which ended with the first democratic elections in 1994.
In Gaza, over 23,350 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since the war started after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7th. In those attacks, about 1,300 people were killed, mostly innocent people, and about 240 others were taken as hostages.
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Israeli officials back destruction of Gaza – Court told
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