Israel will defend itself before the United Nation’s top court against charges that it has engaged in genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, officials said, a rare engagement with the world body, which Israel often denounces as biased against it.
South Africa launched the case on Friday at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, saying the magnitude of death, destruction and humanitarian crisis in Gaza from the Israeli military campaign against Hamas meets the threshold of genocide under international law.
South Africa asked the court to order Israel to halt its attacks in Gaza.
Israel dismisses international cases against it as unfair and biased and rarely cooperates.
Its decision to respond to the charge signals that the government is concerned about the potential damage to its reputation.
Eylon Levy, an official in the Israeli prime minister’s office, on Tuesday accused South Africa of “giving political and legal cover” to the October 7 attack by Hamas that triggered Israel’s campaign.
“The state of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at the Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” he said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with the war until Hamas is crushed and the more than 100 hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza are freed, which he has said could take several more months.
But Israel is under growing international pressure to scale back the offensive ahead of a visit to the region by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who has urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.
On Monday, Israel said it was withdrawing thousands of troops from other areas in a potential shift away from the massive air and ground operations that have devastated the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Still, heavy fighting continued Tuesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Israel’s onslaught in Gaza has been unprecedented in the century-old Mideast conflict, killing nearly 22,000 Palestinians and levelling large swathes of the tiny Mediterranean territory.
Since the war began, Israel has banned entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies to its population of 2.3 million people, except for a trickle of aid that the UN says falls far below its needs.
Israel’s war cabinet was to meet later Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu’s office said.
The agenda reportedly includes a discussion on post-war arrangements for Gaza, a highly polarizing issue in Israel.
Until now, Mr Netanyahu has not presented any plan despite repeated US requests.
He has rejected proposals that the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers pockets of self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, undergo reforms and then take over administration of Gaza as a precursor to Palestinian statehood.
Hamas’s supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, thanked South Africa for launching the case.
“We greet all those who support us, especially the state of South Africa,” Mr Haniyeh said in a televised address broadcast on Al-Jazeera. “And we appreciate the political and legal importance of this complaint.”
Mr Haniyeh also rejected US and Israeli demands that Hamas will not have a role in the future of Gaza after the war, saying any solution of the Palestinian cause without Hamas “are mere illusions”.
“We are the ones who decide our present and future,” he said.
Mr Haniyeh, who lives in exile, reiterated that there will be no exchange of prisoners between Hamas and Israel “until the aggression comes to a complete stop”.
He said all Palestinians prisoners will have to be set free in return for the hostages.
