The South African government has accused Israel of openly disobeying the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) orders regarding its military actions in Gaza.
According to Zane Dangor, the director-general of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, the ICJ’s orders, while not directly demanding a ceasefire, basically required one.
He claimed that Israel’s continued military activities, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian civilian deaths, violated these orders, News24 reported.
The ICJ had given temporary measures centred on preventing further harm to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, following the deadly attack by Hamas on Israeli territory on 7 October, which resulted in a massacre of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 240 others.
South Africa alleges that Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have resulted in the deaths of 668 Palestinians since the ICJ ruling, are acts of genocide.
The ICJ’s orders demand that Israel must take all measures to prevent acts identified in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention against Palestinians in Gaza. This includes killing, causing bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the Palestinian group.
The South African government is also concerned about statements made by Israeli ministers supporting the resettlement of Jewish Israelis in Gaza. They believe this is incitement to genocide, which is another violation of the ICJ’s orders.
As the ICJ’s rulings can only be enforced by the United Nations Security Council, where the United States, an ally of Israel, holds veto power, it remains unclear how the situation will unfold.
Pictured above: South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel.
Image source: X
