Israel urges top UN court to reject new South African Gaza petition
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Israel urged the U.N.’s top court on Thursday to reject an urgent request by South Africa to assess whether Israeli military strikes targeting the southern Gaza city of Rafah are illegal. The campaigns violate temporary measures the court issued last month. Case of alleged massacre.
South Africa asked the International Court of Justice to decide whether Israel’s attacks on Rafah and its intention to launch ground attacks against the city, where 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering, violate the UN Genocide Convention and the court issued a ruling last month. The interim orders violate both. A case accusing Israel of genocide.
In a three-page brief made public by the court on Thursday, Israel called the new South African request “very strange and unacceptable.”
He also said the petition was “evidence of a new and cynical attempt by South Africa to use provisional measures as a sword rather than a shield and to manipulate the Court to protect the South’s ally, the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas.” Africa has long had Israel’s inherent right and obligation to defend itself” and seek to free the more than 130 hostages still held by Hamas.
Israel strongly denies that it is carrying out genocide in Gaza, saying it makes every effort to protect civilians and only attacks Hamas fighters. They claim that Hamas’s strategy of establishing itself in civilian areas makes it difficult to avoid civilian casualties.
The Israeli offensive has wreaked havoc on Gaza, killing more than 28,000 Palestinians, more than 70% of whom are women, children and teenagers, according to local health officials. About 80% of the population has been displaced and according to the United Nations, more than a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza face starvation.
Israel says it has killed thousands of fighters in its campaign to crush Hamas in retaliation for October 7 attacks on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage.
In a statement on Tuesday, the South African government said Rafah was “the last refuge for Gaza survivors.” He asked the UN’s top court to consider using its powers to issue new injunctions directing Israel to stop killing and destruction there.
South Africa has already argued that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in its war against Hamas in Gaza, and filed a complaint with the World Court in December. A verdict on genocide charges could take years.
In its latest application to the World Court, Israel claims that South Africa “now essentially wishes to sue again – through an abbreviated process in which it has made a worrying attempt to deny Israel the right to be heard – which But the court has yet to consider and decide” after a hearing last month.
Israel says the situation in Gaza is “not qualitatively different” from the situation stated by South Africa in its original request for urgent interim measures and says that by submitting its latest request, the African nation is in compliance with the court’s rules. Misusing one.
“Furthermore, nothing in South Africa’s current petition establishes that the provisional measures already indicated by the Court will no longer be sufficient,” Israel’s document alleges. It also notes that the request “came less than three weeks after the Court issued the order indicating the precautionary measures, and well before the deadline for Israel to submit a report on its compliance with the said order “
It is unclear when the court will rule on South Africa’s petition.