Israel lashes back at ICJ genocide case, accuses South Africa of acting as ‘legal arm of Hamas terrorist organisation’

Israel hit back at South Africa on the first day of the two-day public hearing in the genocide case at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of functioning as the “legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organization”.

“South Africa seeks to allow Hamas to return to commit the war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual crimes they committed repeatedly on Oct. 7,” it said in a statement.

Israel says its only means to defend itself is by eradicating Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, whose fighters stormed through Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 240 hostages. Israel blames Hamas for all subsequent harm to Palestinian civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.

Israel faced down accusations at the World Court on Thursday of genocide in its war in Gaza, as the first residents returned to scenes of total devastation in the north of the enclave where Israeli forces have begun withdrawing this week.

The case, brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, accuses Israel of violating the 1948 genocide convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, which mandates all countries to ensure such crimes are never repeated.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed the South African accusations of committing genocide against Israel in its war in Gaza, terming the allegation as ‘baseless lies and the most hypocritical in history’.

The ministry released a statement soon after the ICJ hearing was adjourned, saying that South Africa was being used as a judicial arm of the Hamas terror group and accused it of presenting a perverted account of the October 7 massacre while ignoring Hamas atrocities and the kidnapping of hostages.

Three months of Israeli bombardment has laid much of the coastal enclave to waste, killing more than 23,000 people and driving nearly the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. An Israeli blockade has sharply restricted supplies of food, fuel and medicine, creating what the United Nations describes as a humanitarian catastrophe.

“Israel has a genocidal intent against the Palestinians in Gaza,” Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, told the court in the Hague. “The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state.”

South Africa asked the court for a preliminary order to demand Israel stop fighting now, while the court hears the full merits of the case in the coming months.

Palestinians said they hoped the court would stop the war. In Rafah, in southern Gaza where the bodies of members of the al-Arjany family killed overnight were laid out outside a morgue, neighbour Khamis Kelab picked up the smallest of three small children bundled in shrouds and cradled the dead infant in his arms.

“To the ICJ: what is the fault of this baby? What did this girl do? What crime did she commit? Was she a terrorist? Did this baby fire rockets?” he said.

“She was inside a tent, in the freezing cold, she was hit by a strike, this baby is just a few days old, you people.”

The case reveals stark international polarisation. Several Western countries joined Washington in calling genocide accusations against Israel unjustified, not least given the ruthlessness of the Hamas attacks that precipitated the war.

“In fact, it is those who are violently attacking Israel who continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews,” said State Department spokesperson Matt Miller.

But some developing states, including heavyweight Brazil, backed South Africa, whose President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country was driven to bring the case by “the ongoing slaughter of the people of Gaza” and South Africa’s own apartheid history.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: “We urge the court to reject all pressure and take a decision to criminalise the Israeli occupation and stop the aggression on Gaza.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed the case as “ meritless ” during a visit to Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

“It is particularly galling, given that those who are attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter Iran — continue to call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews,” he said.

The World Court, which rules on disputes between nations, has never judged a country to be responsible for genocide. The closest it came was in 2007 when it ruled that Serbia “violated the obligation to prevent genocide” in the July 1995 massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

The U.N. court, headquartered in the ornate Peace Palace in a leafy suburb of The Hague, deals with disputes between nations. The International Criminal Court, based a few miles (kilometres) away in the same Dutch city, prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

With inputs from agencies.