DNA

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa expects the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule this Friday on whether it will grant emergency measures to stop the Israeli genocidal campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip, a report says.

News website News24, citing two sources close to the matter, reported on Wednesday that a South African government delegation had touched down in The Hague in anticipation of the judgment.

South Africa’s justice ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, however, in a social media post on X said: “We do not have an official communication from the court as to when the judgment will be delivered.”

South Africa filed the lawsuit against Israel at the end of December, after nearly three months of Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza.

The lawsuit said Israel’s actions are “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”

The application also said Israeli attacks breach the UN’s Genocide Convention, and urged the court to “order Israel to cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza.”

South Africa has been one of the outspoken critics of Israel’s ongoing onslaught against Palestinians and has led some initiatives to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza.

In November, the country referred Israel to the International Criminal Court, which is already investigating the occupied Palestinian territories.

In the same month, the country’s lawmakers voted in favor of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until the onslaught stops.

More countries have joined South Africa in a case filed against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the regime’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

A Belgian minister recently pledged her country’s backing for the case filed by South Africa with the ICJ seeking to halt Israel’s genocidal campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip. Caroline Gennez, Belgium’s minister of development cooperation, made the call in a series of social media posts over the weekend.

One hundred and ten days into the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the regime continues with its deadly carpet-bombing campaign across the besieged Palestinian territory.

Khan Younis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, has become a flashpoint for Israel’s ongoing genocidal war where dozens of lives have been lost.

The regime bombings have also targeted the vicinity of several hospitals in Khan Yunis. The Israeli military has issued an order for over 500,000 Gazans to evacuate the area.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza in a matter of 24 hours alone.

The total death toll from more than three months of Israeli onslaught is at around 25,700.