AMSTERDAM: South Africa on Friday asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to grant an urgent ruling that Israel is violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its actions against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
The ICJ, sometimes known as the World Court, is a United Nations venue for adjudicating disputes between states. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a response that the lawsuit was “baseless”.
South Africa’s filing alleges Israel is violating its obligations under a treaty drafted in the wake of the Holocaust, which makes it a crime to attempt to destroy a person, in whole or in part.
It asked the court to issue a provisional or short-term measure ordering Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza, which it said was necessary in order to “protect the rights of the Palestinian people from further, serious and irreparable harm.” “It was necessary.” ,
No date has been set for the hearing.
While the ICJ in The Hague is considered the highest court of the United Nations, its decisions are sometimes ignored. In March 2022, the court ordered Russia to immediately stop its military operations in Ukraine.
Israel refused to enter
The war began on October 7 when militants from the Islamist group Hamas launched a cross-border attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages from the Israeli side. Palestinian health officials say Israel responded with attacks on Hamas-ruled Gaza, killing more than 21,000.
In a first reaction to South Africa’s lawsuit, Israel’s Foreign Ministry blamed Hamas for causing the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by using them as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid from them, allegations Hamas denies.
