(Johannesburg) Pretoria announced on Tuesday that it had filed a new appeal with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague so that it urgently examines Israel’s announcement of an upcoming military offensive on Rafah and opposes whether necessary for “a further violation of rights”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered his army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, the last refuge for 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the UN, more than half of the territory’s total population, most of them having fled the war that has been raging for four months.
International pressure has since intensified for a truce agreement between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas.
Pretoria said it had filed an emergency appeal with the ICJ on Monday. South Africa has already referred the matter to the highest court of the UN, accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza.
The judges, who did not comment at this stage on the question of whether Israel is actually committing genocide or not, nevertheless ordered it to prevent such acts.
In its new appeal, Pretoria said it was “gravely concerned” by the new “massacres, injuries and large-scale destruction” that Israel’s military offensive in Rafah will cause.
According to the South African government, this “would constitute a serious and irreparable violation of the Genocide Convention”.
The ICJ, which is not required to take up the case, has not confirmed at this stage that it has received the file. The Court’s rulings are binding and cannot be appealed, but it has no means of enforcing its decisions.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,160 people, the majority civilians killed that day. , according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, the Israeli government vowed to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007. More than 28,000 people have been killed since the start of the war in the Palestinian territory, the vast majority civilians, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still in Gaza, 29 of whom are believed to have died, out of around 250 people kidnapped on October 7. A week-long truce in November allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians detained by Israel.