The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) announces this Friday whether it will issue precautionary measures against Israel's offensive in Gaza following South Africa's demand.
The decision is one of the most complicated that this court has faced and is surrounded by political tension.
The request to stop the bombings heads the complaint presented at the end of December by South Africa to the ICJ, arguing that Israel supposedly has “genocidal intent” against the Palestinian population.
He also emphasizes that what happened in the Strip "exceeds legitimate defense."
The orders of the judges of this high court are binding, and although they lack the capacity to force compliance, they do put pressure on the States involved and their allies.
In this phase of the procedure, the ICJ only has to evaluate whether it is plausible that a genocide is being committed in the Strip.
Israel categorically rejects the accusation, but the Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met this Thursday with a crisis cabinet in view of the possibility that the highest judicial body of the UN will order the cessation of the military attack.
South Africa asks the magistrates in the lawsuit for nine precautionary measures after ensuring that Israel has violated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (1948), of which both countries are members.
In its article II, it describes genocide as a crime perpetrated “with the intention of totally or partially destroying a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”
The Convention does not prohibit the use of force in general, but focuses on a specific type of conduct that leads to the greatest crimes recognized in international justice.
Throughout 84 pages, the Pretoria Government affirms that Israel is carrying out a “brutal military campaign where it commits genocidal acts with the intention of destroying the Palestinians of Gaza.”
No one is safe there, the writing denounces.
“Palestinians die at the rate of one person every six minutes,” in one of the “most densely populated places in the world.”
On the other hand, South Africa assures that the statements of several Israeli politicians and officials have “genocidal intent” against the Palestinian people.
Therefore, it asks the UN Court to “protect their [Palestinian] rights against greater, serious and irreparable harm.”
Among the slogans reproduced include the words of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: “We face animals and we act accordingly.”
Or those of Nissim Vaturi, also from Netanyahu's conservative Likud and who serves as a deputy and vice president of Parliament, who asked to “wipe Gaza off the face of the earth.”
Both South Africa and Israel presented their arguments before the ICJ in two consecutive sessions, held on January 11 and 12.
For the plaintiff country, this is “the first genocide in history in which the victims record their own destruction live in a desperate and vain attempt to get the world to do something.”
Hence his emergency request for precautionary measures.
Israel denied having genocidal intent, and claimed that it would be defenseless if it did not repel the attacks of the Islamist militia Hamas, a group considered terrorist by the United States, the EU and the United Kingdom, among others, as highlighted by Israeli representatives in The Hague, headquarters of the court.
For Israel, stopping the offensive only benefits Hamas, which killed 1,200 people in its attacks on the country on October 7.
He also considers that South Africa's accusation is “false” and distorts reality.
Precisely, this Thursday Hamas has stated that it is willing to abide by a ceasefire if the International Court of Justice so decides, according to the Efe agency.
“In the event that the Hague Court calls for a ceasefire, the Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement will commit itself, as long as the enemy respects it,” the group that governs Gaza said in a statement, in which it assured that it would also will release the Israeli hostages in its possession “if the occupying State releases the Palestinian prisoners it is holding.”
Nowhere in Gaza is safe
For its part, the UN has detailed that more than half of Gaza's population is overcrowded in Rafah, in the south of the Strip.
The intense Israeli offensive, now concentrated in the south of the territory, has already forced more than 50% of the Gazan population – estimated at 2.2 million – to flee towards Rafah, in the extreme south and where the overcrowded conditions “do not "They are safe," according to the agency.
“Israeli forces continue to shell areas they have unilaterally designated as 'safe' for evacuation, confirming that nowhere in Gaza is safe (...) and raising the risk of a further escalation of hostilities in Rafah,” he said. written in its daily report by the UN Human Rights Office (OCHA).
The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed 25,900 people since October 7, the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, reported this Thursday.
That figure represents 200 more people than the day before.
The number of injured exceeds 64,110, according to Gaza authorities.
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