Inside Politics Reporter
Government has officially filed papers on Friday asking the United Nations’ International Court of Justice under the genocide Convention to force Israel to stop its military attacks against Palestinians in Gaza.
“South Africa is gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants.”
“Furthermore, there are ongoing reports of international crimes, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes, being committed as well as reports that acts meeting the threshold of genocide or related crimes as defined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, have been and may still be committed in the context of the ongoing massacres in Gaza,” International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor said in a statement on Friday evening.
Pandor said South Africa has repeatedly stated that it condemns all violence and attacks against all civilians, including Israelis.
She said South Africa has continuously called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the resumption of talks that will end the violence arising from the continued belligerent occupation of Palestine.
As a State Party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, she said South Africa is under a treaty obligation to prevent genocide from occurring.
At a special meeting held on 8 December 2023, Cabinet directed that the International Court of Justice in The Hague be approached to obtain an order directing Israel, which is also a State Party, to refrain from any acts that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the Convention.
An application was filed before the Court on 29 December 2023 in which the Court is requested 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 actions.
According to the UN, in Gaza, the latest death toll as of midnight on Thursday stood at 21,110 according to the Strip’s health authorities with over 55,243 Palestinians injured in the enclave.
The UN reported that heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land and sea, continued across most of the territory on Wednesday while Palestinian armed groups continued firing rockets into Israel.
According to the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) 1.9 million people in Gaza, or nearly 85% of the population, are estimated to be internally displaced, many repeatedly. On Thursday the agency stressed that new Israeli evacuation orders in Middle Gaza are exacerbating displacement as “over 150,000 people – young children, women carrying babies, people with disabilities and the elderly – have nowhere to go”.
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