On January 11 and 12, 2024, the International Court of Justice in The Hague will hold hearings to consider the case brought by South Africa regarding the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip since October 7, which claimed the lives of more than 23,000, including more than 10,000 children.
In its application submitted on December 29, Pretoria accused Israel of committing genocide in contravention of the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention of Genocide, to which both South Africa and Israel are signatories. The parties signing the treaty reserve their right to prevent and stop crime.
South Africa bases its claim on the fact that thousands of Palestinians were killed, displaced en masse, and their homes were destroyed, in addition to the inflammatory statements made by a number of Israeli officials, which portray the Palestinians as subhuman and that they must be subjected to collective punishment, which represents genocide and evidence of the intention to commit it.