Israel labels South Africa 'legal arm' of Hamas
Israel on Thursday accused South Africa of serving as the "legal arm" of Hamas militants, as lawyers presented Pretoria's "genocide" case against Israel at the UN's top court.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat described South Africa's case over Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip as "one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy in history".
South Africa Thursday accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, saying that even the deadly October 7 Hamas attack could not justify such alleged actions, as it opened a case at the top UN court.
Pretoria has lodged an urgent appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to force Israel to "immediately suspend" its military operations in Gaza.
Israel will lay out its defence on Friday.
"No armed attack on a state territory, no matter how serious... can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention," said Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.
"Israel's response to the October 7 attack has crossed this line and given rise to the breaches of the convention," he added.
The war in Gaza erupted when Hamas launched its unprecedented attack, which resulted in about 1,140 people killed in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed at least 23,357 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
But Haiat accused South Africa of seeking to allow Hamas to return to Gaza to commit war crimes
“The South African lawyers are also ignoring the fact that Hamas uses the civilian population in Gaza as human shields and operates from within hospitals, schools, UN shelters, mosques and churches with the intention of endangering the lives of the residents of the Gaza Strip,” said on X (formerly Twitter).
“The State of Israel will continue to protect its citizens in accordance with international law while distinguishing between Hamas terrorists and the civilian population and will do anything in its power to release all hostages and eliminate the Hamas terrorist organisation, a racist and antisemitic terrorist organisation that calls in its Convention for the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of Jews.”
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