Israel rejects genocide charges, tells World Court it must defend itself

GAZA/THE HAGUE - Israel on Jan 12 rejected as “grossly distorted” accusations, brought by South Africa at the UN’s top court, that its military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign aimed at wiping out the Palestinian population.

It called on judges to dismiss South Africa’s request to halt its offensive, saying that would leave it defenceless.

South Africa, which filed the lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December, asked judges on Jan 11 to impose emergency measures ordering Israel to immediately halt its offensive.

It said Israel’s aerial and ground offensive – which has laid waste to much of the narrow coastal enclave and killed more than 23,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities –

aimed to bring about “the destruction of the population” of Gaza.

“Israel has a genocidal intent against the Palestinians in Gaza,” Mr 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’s interpretation of events was “grossly distorted”, Israel’s Foreign Ministry legal adviser Tal Becker told the court on Jan 12. “If there were acts of genocide, they have been perpetrated against Israel,” he said, adding: “Hamas seeks genocide against Israel.”

The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.

Israel launched its

all-out war in Gaza after a Hamas attack on Oct 7

. Israeli officials said 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage.

“The appalling suffering of civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, is first and foremost the result of Hamas’ strategy,” Mr Becker said, adding that Israel had a right to defend itself. Hamas denies Israeli allegations that its militants hide among civilians.

“Israel is in a war of defence against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people, to ensure that they do not succeed,” Mr Becker said, adding: “The key component of genocide, the intent to destroy a people, in whole or in part, is totally lacking.”

‘Genocide’

Israel argued that this meant the court has no jurisdiction under the Genocide Convention to order it to halt its military actions in Gaza.

“This is no genocide; South Africa tells us only half the story,” lawyer Malcolm Shaw said.

The court is expected to rule on possible emergency measures later in January, but will not rule at that time on the genocide allegations. Those proceedings could take years.

The ICJ’s decisions are final and without appeal – but the court has no way to enforce them.

Palestinian backers with flags marched through The Hague and watched proceedings on a giant screen in front of the Peace Palace. As the Israeli delegation spoke in court, they chanted: “Liar! Liar!”

Asked what she thought of Israel’s arguments that the Gaza campaign was a matter of self-defence, Ms Neen Haijjawi, a Palestinian who recently came to the Netherlands, said: “How can an occupier that’s been oppressing people for 75 years say it’s self-defence?”

Israeli supporters were holding a gathering of family members of hostages taken by Hamas.

Israel has said South Africa was acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas. South Africa has rejected that accusation.

Since Israeli forces launched their offensive, nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes at least once. An Israeli blockade has sharply restricted supplies of food, fuel and medicine, creating what the UN describes as a humanitarian catastrophe.

Post-apartheid South Africa has long advocated the Palestinian cause. The relationship was forged when the African National Congress’ struggle against white-minority rule was cheered on by Mr Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation.

“My grandfather always regarded the Palestinian struggle as the greatest moral issue of our time,” Mr Mandla Mandela, a grandson of the late South African president Nelson Mandela, said at a rally in support of the Palestinians in Cape Town.

On Jan 11, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned South Africa’s genocide case as “hypocrisy and lies”.

“We are fighting terrorists, we are fighting lies... Today, we saw an upside-down world. Israel is accused of genocide while it is fighting against genocide,” he said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused South Africa of “functioning as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation” in a case built on “false and baseless claims”.

Israel says its only means to defend itself is by eradicating Hamas, which rules Gaza.

The White House also said the genocide allegations were unfounded.

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 children bundled in shrouds and cradled the dead infant.

“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 Palestine Red Crescent reported late on Jan 11 that nine people had been killed in an Israeli bombardment targeting a house in Rafah.

Scorched ruins

Since the New Year,

Israel has announced a new phase in the war,

to begin drawing down forces in the northern half of the Gaza Strip where its offensive began. Even so, fighting has only intensified in southern areas.

The relative quiet in the north has let residents begin trickling back into obliterated cities, finding a moonscape often with scant trace of where homes once stood.

Mr Yousef Fares, a freelance journalist, filmed himself walking through a wasteland surrounded by scorched ruins that was once a part of Gaza City, home to nearly a million people. A few civilians passed by, some wobbling on bicycles over a track across the mud.

“All the houses you see are destroyed, completely or partially,” he said.

“We are now at the Tuffah old cemetery, which is over 100 years old. All those graves were exhumed, they were run over by the Israeli bulldozers and tanks. People are coming from various areas of Gaza City to search for the bodies of their sons.”

While Washington has backed Israel’s military campaign as justified by its right to self-defence, it has also called on its ally to scale the war back, do more to protect civilians and maintain the hope of a future independent Palestinian state.

This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the region, meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials and leaders of neighbouring Arab states, defending Israel’s campaign to eradicate Hamas but pushing for it to work with the Palestinian Authority, which recognises Israel.

Offering a pathway to a Palestinian state is the best way to stabilise the wider region and isolate Iran and its proxies, he said while on a visit to Egypt.

He was also briefed on progress as Egypt, along with Qatar, tries to mediate between Hamas and Israel to broker a ceasefire and secure the release of more than 130 Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Relatives of the hostages stood by the Gaza fence on Jan 11, taking turns to shout messages of love and support into a microphone in the hope that the captives would hear them.

“Omer, can you hear us?” shouted Mrs Orna Neutra, mother of 22-year-old hostage Omer Neutra.

“We’re here. We’re really close to you. We’re fighting for you every single day,” she shouted, her voice breaking with emotion. She was holding a placard with a picture of her son. REUTERS