THE HAGUE
\nSouth Africa accused Israel on Thursday of carrying out genocide in Gaza and demanded that the UN\u2019s top court order an emergency suspension of Israel\u2019s devastating military campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
\nOn the first of two days of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, South Africa said Israel\u2019s attack on Gaza, which has demolished much of the coastal enclave and killed more than 23,000 people, aimed to bring about \u201cthe destruction of the (territory\u2019s) population\u201d.
\n\u201cThe intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state,\u201d Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, told the court. He said Israel\u2019s political and military leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were among \u201cthe genocidal inciters\u201d.
\n\u201cThat is evident from the way in which this military attack is being conducted,\u201d he said.
\nIsrael rejected the accusations of genocide as false and baseless and said South Africa was speaking on behalf of Hamas \u2014 which Pretoria said was untrue. Netanyahu said the court had been presented with \u201chypocrisy and lies\u201d.
\n\u201cToday we saw an upside-down world. Israel is accused of genocide while it is fighting against genocide,\u201d he said in a statement.
\n\u201cIsrael is fighting murderous terrorists who carried out crimes against humanity: they slaughtered, they raped, they burned, they dismembered, they beheaded \u2014 children, women, elderly, young men and women,\u201d he said.
\nLaying out its allegations of genocidal acts, South Africa pointed to Israel\u2019s sustained bombing campaign and to comments by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said days after the Oct 7 Hamas raid that Israel would impose a total blockade as part of a battle against \u201chuman animals\u201d.
\n\u201cThe evidence of genocidal intent is not only chilling, it is also overwhelming and incontrovertible,\u201d Ngcukaitobi said.
\nThe 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the Holocaust, defines genocide as \u201cacts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE HAGUE South Africa accused Israel on Thursday of carrying out genocide in Gaza and demanded that the UN\u2019s top court order an emergency suspension of Israel\u2019s devastating military campaign in the Palestinian enclave. On the first of two days of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-380485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n