South Africa argued on Thursday that Israel was acting with “genocidal intent” in Gaza, citing as evidence the words of Israeli officials, including the defense minister Yoav Gallant, who said Israel would impose a full siege on the territory because it was fighting “human animals.”
South African officials said this on the first day of a two-day hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague Statements by Israeli officials such as Mr. Gallant expressed an intent to commit genocide. Israel categorically denies the genocide accusation and will present its defense on Friday.
To constitute genocide, perpetrators' intent to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group must be proven, according to the UN Genocide Convention, to which Israel is a signatory. However, intent is often the most difficult element to prove in such cases.
As the hearing ended, South Africa, which brought the lawsuit against Israel, asked the court to issue an emergency rule requiring Israel to immediately halt all military operations in Gaza, including lifting evacuation orders and providing food, water and shelter for the people there and clothing.
Decisions by the Court, the United Nations' highest judicial body, are binding but there are few avenues for enforcement. It could take years to reach a final verdict.
The genocide accusation has particular significance in Israel, which was founded in the wake of the near-total destruction of European Jewry in World War II and became a refuge for Jews expelled from Arab countries. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lior Haiat, called the trial Thursday “one of the greatest hypocrisies in history” and reiterated Israel's argument that it is Hamas that should be charged with genocide.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the case. “Today we once again saw an upside-down world in which the State of Israel is accused of genocide while fighting against genocide,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Haiat described Hamas as “a racist and anti-Semitic terrorist organization that calls in its convention for the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of Jews.” And he said the genocide case put forward by South Africa – whose post-apartheid government has long supported the Palestinian cause – overlooked Hamas's atrocities in its terror attacks in southern Israel on October 7.
South Africa “completely ignored the fact that Hamas terrorists were infiltrating Israel, murdering, executing, massacring, raping and kidnapping Israeli citizens simply because they were Israelis, in an attempt to commit genocide,” he said.
The court hearings are the first time that Israel has personally defended itself in such an environment, testifying to the seriousness of the charges and the high stakes for the country's international reputation and reputation.
According to Israeli officials, about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 were taken hostage in the October 7 Hamas attacks. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion that killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, including many women and children, according to health authorities in Gaza, whose count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. International organizations say most of Gaza's 2.2 million residents have been displaced since fighting began, raising the risk of disease and hunger.
South Africa's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 but said the scale of Israel's military response in Gaza was unjustified. He told the court that the Israeli offensive created conditions for Gazans that were aimed at “bringing about their physical destruction.”
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, another South African lawyer arguing in the case, said the statements of Israeli officials like Mr Gallant – who said after the Hamas attack that Israel was allowing “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” into Gaza would – were tantamount to an order for the physical extermination of the residents of Gaza and a “communicated state policy”.
“This leaves no room for ambiguity,” Mr Ngcukaitobi said. “It means creating conditions for the death of the Palestinian people in Gaza, dying a slow death due to starvation and dehydration, or dying quickly due to a bombing or a sniper, but dying nonetheless.”
Israeli leaders said South Africa's allegations distort the meaning of the genocide and the purpose of the 1948 Genocide Convention. They point to millions of messages sent through various channels urging civilians in Gaza to evacuate to safer areas ahead of bombings, and say they are constantly working to increase the amount of aid coming into Gaza.