Israel defended this Friday the need for its offensive in Gaza before the highest UN court after South Africa yesterday asked judges to take emergency measures to stop military operations in Rafah, because they demonstrate the Israeli “genocidal” plan aimed at to cause the destruction of the Palestinian people. The hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are a new chapter in the case that Pretoria brought to The Hague at the end of last year and that accuses Israel of committing genocide in the strip.
Israel’s deputy attorney general for international law, Gilad Noam, called the case “completely disconnected from reality.” “It mocks the atrocious accusation of genocide,” he added, “it is an obscene exploitation of the most sacred convention,” referring to the Genocide Convention, the international treaty that prohibits this crime and was agreed upon after the Holocaust of the Jews in the Second World War.
In response to South Africa’s accusations that Rafah is the last remaining refuge for Palestinians, Noam argued that Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip were not directed at civilians, but against Hamas terrorists. that they use Rafah as their stronghold and that it has tunnel systems that could be used to smuggle hostages and fighters out of Gaza. The examples of alleged violations by Israel raised by South Africa “are not evidence of a policy of illegal behavior, much less a policy of genocide,” he said.
Ordering Israel to withdraw its troops would condemn the hostages remaining in Gaza to death, he added, while lawyer Tamar Kaplan-Tourgeman said that in recent weeks, Israel had “flooded” the strip with humanitarian aid. Moment when a woman present in the room shouted “liars.” Last week, Israeli troops closed the Rafah crossing, one of the main aid entrances to the strip and the only evacuation route for wounded Palestinians to Egypt.
The Israeli legal team also accused South Africa of having “a clear ulterior motive” in requesting a ceasefire in the strip because it seeks “to obtain a military advantage for its ally, Hamas, which it does not wish to see defeated.”
In the high court’s first ruling on interim measures in this case, the ICJ rejected Israel’s demands to dismiss the case and ordered it to prevent acts of genocide against the Palestinians, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. . The Israeli government was defiant of its mandate. This week’s hearings focus solely on issuing injunctions, a decision that could be made next week, but it will likely be years before the court can rule on the genocide charge.
