ICJ told Israel bent on destroying Gaza in plan handed down from 'the top'
Jan. 11 (UPI) -- South Africa kicked off its genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice on Thursday with a claim that Israel was deliberately seeking to "destroy" Gaza with the blessing of "the highest level of state."
The claims were made by South African lawyers seeking an emergency ruling ordering Israel to "cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza."
Israel's "genocidal intent" was evident "from the way in which this military attack is being conducted," South African High Court senior counsel Tembeka Ngcukaitobi told the ICJ.
"The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state.
"Israel's political leaders, military commanders, and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent," he added, citing comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In one statement quoted, Netanyahu recalled the Biblical tale of the Amalekite tribe's attack on the Israeli people as they fled Egypt.
According to the Old Testament book of Samuel, God commanded the first "King of Israel," Saul, to take revenge by obliterating the Amaleks by killing men, women and children and even their animals.
Ngcukaitobi also quoted Gallant's Oct. 9 statement declaring a total siege and that no electricity, no food, no water and no fuel would allowed to enter the Gaza Strip and another where he told his troops he had removed "all the restraints" and that Gaza would never go back to how it was.
The comments were internalized by troops on the ground in Gaza as they went about destroying the people and the fabric of the Palestinian enclave, Ngcukaitobi said.
The three-hour "indication of provisional measures" hearing heard opening oral arguments from lawyers from Pretoria, while a legal team from Israel, which dismisses the allegations as blood libel, is scheduled to get its turn Friday, the ICJ said in a news release.
Court time allocated to lawyers for both sides to present their oral arguments was extended Wednesday, "further to a request from Israel," the court added.
South Africa's case, filed Dec. 29, accuses Israel of violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which it is a signatory, in its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza in prosecuting its war against Hamas.
Thursday's hearing is an effort to secure emergency measures from the court "to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, which continues to be violated with impunity."
"The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group," South Africa wrote in an application to the ICJ.
The injunction being sought by Pretoria would also require Israel to halt the intentional creation of conditions designed to hasten the destruction of the Palestinian people, prevent incitement to genocide, lift restrictions on provision of aid and stop ordering Gazans to evacuate.
The genocide case got underway as the latest death count from the Palestinian Ministry of Health rose by 147 with 243 injured, bringing the total killed as a result of Israel's combat operations in Gaza triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack to 23,357 and 59,410 injured.
Israel, which reacted with fury when the case was first filed, reiterated that it was acting within the law to rid Gaza of Hamas and free the hostages the group is holding and that it believes South Africa's case is unfounded and without merit.
"Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population. Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law," Netanyahu said in a post on X.
Israel also plans to hold a march calling for peace timed to coincide with Thursday's hearing and a series of events being held by Israel's consular mission in the Netherlands, including exhibitions about Israeli hostages and airing interviews with their families.
