South Africa files case against Israel at International Court of Justice | DW News

South Africa files case against Israel at International Court of Justice | DW News

In its offensive against Hamas Israel’s military is Shifting its focus further south in the last 24 hours air strikes and artillery Fire have hit Targets in Central and Southern Gaza killing at least 165 Palestinians that is according to local officials the United Nations estimates that some 100,000 gazin are

Newly displaced many of them not for the first time Israeli forces say they’re making progress in their search for weapons Depots and secret hideouts used by Hamas it is designated a terrorist organization by the US Germany and several other countries Israeli troops attacking a southern Gaza base from where Hamas

Militants presumably set out to invade Israel on October 7th this footage from Israel’s military shows an ongoing operation to gain control of the site the goal dismantling Hamas infrastructure and tracking down its leaders hideouts Israel’s military says it has destroyed several Hamas tunnels all over the Gaza Strip This latest one in the

North we found a very significant Hamas tunnel Network a network used by senior officials it’s very deep deeper than the previous ones this tunnel is different it has an elevator that goes down a very long tunnel shaft the fighting has led to one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Street

Now Israel is expanding its operations in the area around the southern city of Han unun the local Nasser Hospital says it’s running out of supplies space is limited but the patients keep coming the hospital is receiving a lot more than its capacity in fact we are functioning at 300% capacity the Beds

Are full most of the time one bed is holding two patients at the same time and we are basically short on all sorts of medical supplies many of those brought to hospitals are collected by members of the red crescent who transport the dead and wounded through streets filled with

Debris and with no signs of a deescalation there appears to be no respite for a population caught in the crossfire according to the Hamas run Gaza Health Ministry Israel’s offensive has killed more than 21,500 Palestinians the United Nations estimates that about 85% of gaza’s population is now

Displaced for more we can talk to Bushra khi she is the policy lead for the Palestinian territories for Oxfam and joins us today from the occupied West Bank welcome abush what can you tell us about the situation in Gaza and after these latest Israeli strikes well uh I’m in fact personally

Affected by what’s happened this week in Gaza especially in the mzi massacre on uh Christmas Eve uh I have my family um in maazi refugee camp at the moment uh a distant relative of ours lost um his son lost two legs um in that attack uh and now the question and for

My family including is where do we go next and where is safe for us to go next um they’ve already been displaced three times this is the story of probably very a lot most uh people in Gaza um where there is nowhere to go they’re trapped

In a small strip of land uh with no food no water no proper Health Care no electricity um no fuel uh no Telecom um and very very very little Aid coming in and even whatever Aid comes in uh could never be enough to really meet the needs of an

Entire an entire city devastated I’m so sorry to hear about your family member there uh this this is clearly an issue affecting you personally as well I’m sorry to jump in we are just hearing though that Israel’s military has announced a 4-Hour tactical pause in fighting in the south of the Gaza strip

And I’m wondering from your professional experience how much you think uh these temporary breaks uh like this could help aid workers to do their jobs absolutely nothing four hours to meet the needs of 2.2 million people we’re talking about half of which are children many are sick many are wounded

Um people it’s it’s it’s absolute chaos uh people are are fighting for their lives every single day um 4 hours is it’s it’s meaningless really it’s just like the truth you know a few a few weeks ago and US humanitarian organizations were raising the alarm

Bell on this and how you know a 5-day pause is nothing in comparison to the needs that we’re seeing we’re seeing we’re talking about almost 60 to 70,000 people injured um many of which with extremely traumatic injuries we’re talking about people already in hospitals we’re also talking about elderly my parents-in-law are elderly

People um they need a medication for their hearts and and different kind of things that they can’t even get um so it’s not just about how much Aid comes in from in the 4 hours it’s about a complete and permanent ceasefire an end to the Relentless bombing an end to the

War crimes that we’re seeing being committed um and uh a restoration of services and and a proper environment for humanitarian workers to work in this is not an envir an environment where we would be okay as humanitarian workers to send our teams to deliver Aid in it’s

It’s it would breach our duty of care to our own teams well thank you very much for joining us to share uh your personal experience and and the work of Aid workers uh as Israel says it is continuing its offensive against Hamas there that is Bush Hal oxfam’s policy

Lead for the Palestinian territories we very much appreciate your time thank you Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin netan who says the war with hamus will continue for many more months and the border between Gaza and Egypt should be under Israeli control thousands of protesters have rallied again in Tel Aviv demanding the release

Of Israeli hostages and calling for new elections Israel is coming under increasing International pressure to find a long-term solution to the conflict South Africa has filed a case against Israel at the international court of justice accusing it of genocide Shane Dari is deputy director of the Irish Center for human rights in

The School of Law at the University of gway I asked him to explain what kind of evidence South Africa is putting forward so South Africa has made a very detailed submission to the international court of justice in which it goes through the various elements of the

Crime of genocide and this is a highly significant development in the context of Gaza St states don’t tend to take these Interstate cases um that regularly we’ve seen one more recently in the context of Gambia versus Myanmar and I think it reflects the seriousness of the situation in Gaza where we’ve seen

Destruction displacement and the killing of those civilians including many children on a scale that outpaces many of the world’s recent and indeed ongoing conflicts um the UN has highlighted severe risks of starvation and the spreading of disease as a result of the conditions imposed upon Gaza by Israel

So what are the chances of this actually stopping the war so the idea of taking this particular case from South South Africa’s persp perspective it seems is to try and put an end to the actions that Israel is taking against Gaza at present so they’re alleging that uh

Israel is engaging in the in the crime of genocide what has been referred to as as the crime of crimes they’re saying that Israel is is violating its ongoing it’s engaged in an ongoing violation of its obligations under the 1948 genocide convention uh both South Africa and

Israel are parties to the 1948 genocide convention so this allows for interested states to take proceedings to the international court of justice it’s it is as I said an unprecedented step but as I say also I think it reflects the seriousness of the situation un experts have been highlighting the risks of

Genocide for for over a month or so as well as other crimes that are taking place so the idea is that if the court makes a pronouncement such as provisional measures as are requested it could deter Israel from from its activities but will Israel Heed These Warnings from the court

Well the response from Israel so far has been to condemn South Africa’s approach the international court of justice calling it a blood liable saying that it’s anti-semitic um the court can proceed um if it finds that the claim is well founded in both fact uh and law um

Israel I think would be well advised to to adhere to judgments of the international court of justice now it didn’t do so previously in the context of an advisory opinion concerning the construction of of the wall in the Westbank and along the green line but it does carry significant political Fallout of

Estates that seem to be in defiance of judgments of the international court of justice so we had the court issue provisional measures in the context of Ukraine versus Russia last year um Russia did not abide by those provisional meas measures and it does reflect the somewhat parias status that

That Russia has that present on the international stage very interesting stuff there from Shane Dary human rights law Professor from the University of goway thanks very much for being here on DW let’s go over to our correspondent Jan Philip Schultz he’s in Tel Aviv at yet another demonstration calling for

The release of hostages held in Gaza what are protesters telling you they say that they want the government to find ways to to release the hostages um they are getting more and more impatient and they say that they don’t think that the war effort alone will bring them home there have

Been a lot of reports in Israeli media in the past days that there might be new talks between uh Israel and the Hamas regarding a possible new hostage deal um of course most of the protesters here would uh support such talks uh they might lead eventually into they might

Lead to another um hostage deal similar to what we saw a few weeks ago uh where where the re hostages were released and there was a temporary ceasefire but it’s too early to say if this is really something substantial so how much support would you say there is for the war at the

Moment well in general a majority of Israelis is supporting the war um they don’t necessarily support prime minister netan the netan has lost a lot of support in recent weeks but the dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza is less of a topic here in Israeli media than uh in uh in many

Other countries uh but there is also a growing peace movement here in Israel a lot of people say that the war will not bring security it will only bring more radicalization but it is a minority a lot of people still support uh the war and the military goal to destroy Hamas

Now Israel is under growing a pressure abroad South Africa is taking it to the international court of justice the US want civilians protected how’s the government reacting I think the South African move will not have a very strong impact a spokesperson here already rejected the

Move uh and said that he is I quote disgusted by it and so Africa uh itself is supporting uh terrorism um so uh this probably doesn’t have a lot of impact uh and as you know um the United States have also tried to uh increase pressure

On Israel but the result has been very limited South Africa says that they want the courts to take action immediately to issue measures uh in the coming days but a lot of legal experts say this is more of a symbolic act anyway the only thing that it might change is

To increase public pressure and international pressure on Israel DW’s Yan Philip Schultz with the latest there from Tel Aviv

South Africa has accused Israel of “genocide” against Palestinians at the United Nations’ top court.

The case filed to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleges that “acts and omissions by Israel […] are genocidal in character.”

It also accused Israel of acting with the intent to “destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.”
Israel has rejected South Africa’s allegations, accusing it of siding with terrorists.

“South Africa is collaborating with a terrorist group that calls for Israel’s destruction,” said a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. “The people of Gaza are not an enemy of Israel, who is making efforts to limit harm to non-combatants.”

A statement from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said
“Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide.”
The department urged the ICJ to declare “on an urgent basis that Israel is in breach of its obligations in terms of the Genocide Convention, should immediately cease all acts and measures in breach of those obligations and take a number of related actions.”

Israel classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization, as do the United States, the European Union, Germany and several other states.

Around 85% of the Gaza Strip’s population has been displaced in the conflict. The Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory has said that over 21,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and fighting since October 7.

On Tuesday, South African lawmakers voted to suspend formal ties with Israel and close Israel’s embassy. The move needs to be approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa to take effect.

#israel #southafrica #gaza

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00:00 Background
02:46 Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam
06:20 Protests in Tel Aviv
07:02 Shane Darcy, School of Law, University of Galway
10:04 Jan-Philipp Scholz, DW Correspondent