Conflicts & War

South Africa accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ at top UN court

Brussels, Dec 29 (EFE).- South Africa has submitted a complaint to the International Court of Justice in the Hague against Israel for allegedly committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the court said Friday.

Israel, which does not recognize the authority of the United Nations’ top court, has called South Africa’s claim “baseless”.

According to the documentation submitted by South Africa, “Acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,” the ICJ said in a statement.

South Africa adds that “the conduct of Israel – through its State organs, State agents, and other persons and entities acting on its instructions or under its direction, control or influence – in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.”

The South African government, which has severed diplomatic relations with Israel over its offensive against the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the attack perpetrated by the Islamist group Hamas on October 7, had already made public that it would file a complaint with the ICC.

In November, together with Bangladesh, Bolivia, East Africa, Comoros and Djibouti, South Africa asked the Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation.

The court’s prosecutor replied then that it has been conducting an investigation since 2021 into crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, which “covers conduct that may constitute crimes under the Rome Statute committed since June 13, 2014 in Gaza and the West Bank,” and extends to the “escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on October 7.”

In the documentation now handed over by Johannesburg, it adds that ““Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

South Africa’s complaint includes interim measures to “protect against further,

severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention” and to “ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations” not to engage in, prevent and punish genocide. EFE

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