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South Africa Submits Its Main Legal Claim to the Top UN Court Which Accuses Israel of Genocide

A Palestinian man walks past the rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan hospital, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man walks past the rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan hospital, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
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South Africa Submits Its Main Legal Claim to the Top UN Court Which Accuses Israel of Genocide

A Palestinian man walks past the rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan hospital, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man walks past the rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan hospital, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip October 26, 2024. (Reuters)

The South African legal team delivered a nearly 5,000-page document to the United Nations’ top court on Monday, the latest step in a case the country brought accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The document, which the International Court of Justice will not make public until a later stage in the proceedings, puts forth the “main case” that Israel has a “special intent to commit genocide,” according to a statement from South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Israel has fiercely denied the allegations. The government called the case “blood libel” when South Africa launched the complaint in Dec. 2023.

On Monday a court official at the ICJ confirmed that they had received the document.

The filing takes place as the Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The UN said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.

The Hague-based court has so far issued three rounds of emergency measures, ordering Israel to halt a military offensive in Rafah and open more land crossings for aid into Gaza.

South Africa says Israel has refused to comply. “Israel’s continued shredding of international law has imperiled the institutions of global governance that were established to hold all states accountable,” the president’s statement said.

Palestine, Spain, Chile and seven other countries have petitioned the court to join the case.

Israel now has until July 2025 to reply.

Israel launched its military action in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters on Oct. 7, 2023, attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

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Arab World

Sudan Clinics Could Run Out of Supplies in Weeks Due to Middle East War, Warns NGO

Sudanese women lie in beds as they receive treatment for dengue fever at Omdurman Hospital, as Sudan grapples with outbreaks of dengue and cholera amid the annual rainy season and a collapsed healthcare and infrastructure system, in Khartoum, Sudan, September 23, 2025. (Reuters)
Sudanese women lie in beds as they receive treatment for dengue fever at Omdurman Hospital, as Sudan grapples with outbreaks of dengue and cholera amid the annual rainy season and a collapsed healthcare and infrastructure system, in Khartoum, Sudan, September 23, 2025. (Reuters)
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Sudan Clinics Could Run Out of Supplies in Weeks Due to Middle East War, Warns NGO

Sudanese women lie in beds as they receive treatment for dengue fever at Omdurman Hospital, as Sudan grapples with outbreaks of dengue and cholera amid the annual rainy season and a collapsed healthcare and infrastructure system, in Khartoum, Sudan, September 23, 2025. (Reuters)
Sudanese women lie in beds as they receive treatment for dengue fever at Omdurman Hospital, as Sudan grapples with outbreaks of dengue and cholera amid the annual rainy season and a collapsed healthcare and infrastructure system, in Khartoum, Sudan, September 23, 2025. (Reuters)

Medical supplies to clinics dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Sudan could run out within two weeks unless shipments are rapidly rerouted after disruptions due to the conflict in the Middle East, the charity Save the Children said.

The expanding US-Israeli war on Iran has shaken global supply chains, with airspace closures and the halt of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Some $600,000 worth of essential medicines are stuck in ports in Dubai, the charity said. About ‌90 Sudanese government-run ‌clinics serving roughly 400,000 patients rely on the ‌charity's ⁠supply of medicines, ⁠vaccines and nutritional treatment, with no in-country alternative, Save the Children's global director of supply chain, Willem Zuidema, told Reuters.

Sudan's three-year conflict has displaced millions of people and triggered one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.

"We have a couple of weeks to do this rerouting before the country's stocks run out. The clock is ticking," Zuidema said, adding that once buffer stocks are ⁠exhausted patients would not be able to access basic ‌healthcare support.

The medicines, which include antibiotics, ‌antimalarials, pain and fever medication, and pediatric injectable drugs, normally enter via Port Sudan ‌and travel by road to areas including Darfur.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher ‌said last week the Middle East conflict is straining humanitarian supply chains, with sub-Saharan Africa and Gaza under particular pressure.

RISING COSTS, DONOR CUTS COMPOUND CRISIS

The World Health Organization also warned of growing medical supply shortages in Sudan.

"There's a huge ‌crunch in Sudan, of course, and there's also a bigger crunch in medical commodities going into certain provinces," WHO ⁠regional director ⁠Hanan Balkhy said.

Rising transport costs are impacting aid budgets heavily constrained by major donor cuts, Save the Children said, with container freight rates rising about 25–30% as some shipping firms reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, adding weeks to delivery times.

The level of disruption to freight and subsequent cost impact may be worse than in the initial stages of the Ukraine war and COVID pandemic, because there is little buffer in the system after the aid cuts, Zuidema said.

"Demand will go up, but the means for us to respond - especially with the increasing fuel prices driving up cost - will go down. That's extremely worrying."

Save the Children's country budget for Sudan this year has been slashed by $4 million to $98 million.

Arab World

Lebanon Transfers More Than 130 Syrian Prisoners Under Bilateral Agreement

The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)
The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)
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Lebanon Transfers More Than 130 Syrian Prisoners Under Bilateral Agreement

The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)
The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)

Lebanon transferred more than 130 Syrian detainees to their home country on Tuesday, a Lebanese judicial official and Syrian state media said, as part of an agreement the two sides signed last month.

Overcrowded Lebanese prisons host more than 2,200 Syrians held on various charges.

Many are still awaiting trial, while hundreds have been brought before military courts on charges of "terrorism" or related offences, including attacks on Lebanese forces.

Others are in custody for alleged membership in extremist or armed groups that were opposed to now ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by Lebanon's Hezbollah group during the Syrian civil war.

The judicial official told AFP that "106 convicted inmates were released from Roumieh Prison (north of Beirut), in addition to 31 others from Qobbeh Prison in Tripoli" in the country's north.

"The convoy headed to the Masnaa crossing to hand them over to the Syrian side," the official added.

Syrian state news agency SANA later reported that the detainees had reached the Syrian side of the border crossing.

It is the first batch of prisoners to be transferred under an agreement signed between the two countries in February, which will cover almost 300 convicts who have served 10 years or more in Lebanese prisons.

Under the agreement, they will be required to complete the remainder of their sentences in Syria.

"Today, the implementation of the agreement on the Syrian detainees in Lebanon and the mechanism to transport them to Syrian territory has begun," SANA quoted the charge d'affaires at Syria's embassy in Beirut, Iyad al-Hazzaa, as saying.

He said 136 detainees were among the first group, with those remaining to follow "upon completion of the necessary procedures for their release".

It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the reported number of detainees.

The issue of the detainees had been a sticking point in Beirut-Damascus relations following Assad's overthrow in December 2024.

Over the past year, both sides have repeatedly expressed their determination to open a new chapter in bilateral ties.

Arab World

Civilians Pay a Heavy Price as War in Lebanon Drives Death, Displacement, UN Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
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Civilians Pay a Heavy Price as War in Lebanon Drives Death, Displacement, UN Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)

Civilians are paying a heavy price as the war in Lebanon continues to expand, driving death, injuries and displacement the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"Displacement is increasing incredibly quickly. Right ‌now, hundreds of ‌thousands of people ‌left ⁠their homes. Many ⁠leaving with very little, just the clothes they were wearing," said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza.

Lebanon was sucked ⁠into the war in ‌the ‌Middle East on March 2 when ‌Hezbollah opened fire at ‌Israel, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Israel has responded ‌with an offensive that has killed more ⁠than ⁠800 people in Lebanon and forced more than 800,000 from their homes.

Almost a fifth of people living in Lebanon are now registered as displaced, according to Lebanese government figures, with displacement set to increase, the UN said.

Israeli air strikes on residential buildings in Lebanon raise concerns under international law, the human ‌rights ‌office said ‌on ⁠Tuesday said.

"Israeli air ⁠strikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense ⁠urban environments with ‌multiple ‌members of the ‌same family, ‌including women and children often killed together," ‌UN human rights office spokesperson ⁠Thameen Al-Kheetan ⁠told reporters in Geneva.

"Such attacks raise concerns under international humanitarian law," he added.