At ICJ, South Africa Accuses Israel of Genocide in Gaza

A man rides a scooter past a sticker depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a street in Tel Aviv, Israel January 2, 2024. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

South Africa accused Israel on Thursday of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and demanded that the UN's top court order an emergency suspension of Israel's devastating military campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
On the first of two days of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa said Israel's offensive, which has demolished much of the coastal enclave, killing more than 23,000 people according to Gaza health authorities, aimed to bring about "the destruction of the population" of Gaza.
"The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state," Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, told the court. He said Israel's political and military leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were among "the genocidal inciters".
"That is evident from the way in which this military attack is being conducted," he said.
Israel rejected the accusations of genocide as false and baseless and said South Africa was speaking on behalf of Hamas - which Pretoria said was untrue.
"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 spokesperson Lior Haiat said.
South Africa, Haiat said, was "failing to mention the reason for what happens in Gaza, failing to mention that Hamas on October 7 ... massacred, executed, murdered, burned alive, raped and kidnapped hundreds of Israelis and that Israel is executing its right to self-defense."
Israel launched its all-out war after a cross-border rampage on Oct. 7 by Hamas militants in which Israeli officials said 1,200 people were killed, mainly civilians, and 240 taken hostage back to Gaza.
Israel says it is waging war against Palestinian militants, not the Palestinian people.
To defend its accusation of genocidal acts, South Africa also pointed to Israel's sustained bombing campaign and to comments by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said early in the war that Israel would impose a total blockade as part of a battle against "human animals".
"The evidence of genocidal intent is not only chilling, it is also overwhelming and incontrovertible," Ngcukaitobi said.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".