South Africa’s legal team has sought to make the case before the International Court of Justice that without additional provisional measures against Israel, Gaza would be destroyed.
The team asked the Justices to order a remedy that would put a stop to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Their submission argues that the provisional measures previously indicated by the court were not capable of fully addressing the changed circumstances and new facts in the war, particularly in relation to an imminent full-scale military assault on Rafah, in Gaza’s south.
The team argued that were Rafah to be destroyed in Israel’s latest military onslaught, the entire enclave would be rendered uninhabitable and unable to support life.
South Africa further argued that it was no longer sufficient for the court to order unhindered humanitarian access into Gaza when it was in fact Israel’s continued military operations that was preventing it.
They want the court to order Israel to immediately withdraw from Gaza more broadly but Rafah in particular and order, anew, Israel to facilitate unimpeded access to humanitarian supplies after throttling aid by shuttering key access points.
South Africa contends that Israel’s evacuation orders to safe humanitarian zones were performative as there was no safe place left in Gaza.
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi in his arguments has accused the Israeli leaders of genocidal incitement.
“Israel’s leaders have continued to incite genocide and to express their own genocidal intent. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone beyond any references to Hamas alone. Instead, he has described Israel’s aims in the military assault as being to ensure that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel.”
“He describes Israel’s objective as being to achieve total victory underscoring that no force in the world can stop us,” Ngcukaitobi explains.
Below is yesterday’s proceedings:
