Johannesburg [South Africa], December 30: South Africa asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its crackdown against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
The ICJ, sometimes known as the World Court, is the United Nations venue for resolving disputes between states. Israel's foreign ministry said in a reaction that the suit was "baseless."
South Africa's filing alleged Israel was violating its obligations under the treaty, drafted in the wake of the Holocaust, which makes it a crime to attempt to destroy a people in whole or in part.
It asked the court to issue provisional, or short-term, measures ordering Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza, which it said were "necessary in this case to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people."
No date has been set for a hearing.
While the ICJ in The Hague is considered the U.N.'s highest court, its rulings are sometimes ignored. In March 2022 the court ordered Russia to immediately halt its military campaign in Ukraine.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation