South Africa on Monday submitted to the United Nations’ top court its “main case” against Israel, arguing that the Jewish state is intending to commit a genocide in Gaza.
“Undergirding Israel’s genocidal acts is the special intent to commit genocide, a failure by Israel to prevent incitement to genocide, to prevent genocide itself, and its failure to punish those inciting and committing acts of genocide,” the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote in a statement about the submission to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
South Africa initiated the case in December 2023 and has now filed the bulk of the relevant material to support its claim, according to the statement. Israel has dismissed allegations that it’s perpetrating a genocide, calling them a “blood libel.” South African officials have not published the contents of the documents.
Separately, the International Criminal Court, which is not part of the United Nations but operates as an independent intergovernmental body, continues to deliberate on a request to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The ICC Prosecutor’s Office submitted the request on May 20.
According to disputed statistics provided by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, more than 42,000 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, as a result of Israel’s war on Hamas, following the latter’s massacre in Israel. According to Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, Israeli troops have killed some 17,000 terrorists in Gaza.
