Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media: A senior European Union official hinted that 'Israel' would be held accountable for violating international law in Gaza
Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obeida: The losses incurred by the occupation today in Khan Younis and Jabalia are an extension of a series of top-tier operations
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon: The invading Israeli force is digging a trench and erecting earthen berms, amid detected activity suggesting preparations to install espionage equipment
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon: An Israeli force breaches the "technical fence" in the Wazzani area
Israeli media: 4 Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Government Media Office: Starved citizens are tempted to head to American-Israeli centers and then are deliberately shot
Gaza Government Media Office: The toll at US-Israeli aid distribution centers is as follows: 110 martyred, 583 wounded, and 9 missing
Gaza Government Media Office: 8 starved civilians were killed and 61 others were injured by the gunfire of Israeli occupation forces and an American security company in Rafah
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Three martyrs, injured in Israeli drone strike on phone charging station west of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Four martyrs, dozens of injured as IOF open fire on civilians near GHF facility west of Rafah, southern Gaza.

At first ICJ hearing, South Africa provides evidence of 'genocide'

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: News Agency
  • 11 Jan 2024 14:48
  • 3 Shares
5 Min Read

South Africa asks the UN court to oblige "Israel" to Immediately stop aggression on Gaza.

  • x
  • Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa ,Visumuzi Mandonsela, right, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola, ICJ, Netherlands, Jan 11,2024( AP)
    Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa, Visumuzi Mandonsela, right, and Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola, ICJ, Netherlands, Jan. 11, 2024 (AP)

South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a lawsuit to oblige "Israel" to immediately stop its military operation in the Gaza Strip, a representative of the South African delegation, lawyer Vaughan Lowe, said on Thursday.

South Africa's legal team stated, in its opening statement at The Hague, that South Africa has recognized the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people through "Israel's" colonization since 1948, "which has systematically and forcibly dispossessed, displaced and fragmented the Palestinian people, deliberately denying them the internationally recognised inalienable right to self determination and their internationally recognised rights of return as refugees to their towns and villages in what is now the state of Israel."

The team emphasized that South Africa is particularly mindful of "Israel’s" "institutionalized regime of discriminatory laws, policies, and practices designed and maintained to establish domination, subjecting the Palestinian people to apartheid on both sides of the Green Line."

They also pointed out that the decade-long impunity for widespread and systematic human rights violations has emboldened "Israel" in its recurrence and intensification of humanitarian crimes in Palestine, while simultaneously acknowledging that "the genocidal acts and omissions" by "Israel" "inevitably form part of a continuum of illegal acts perpetrated against the Palestinian people since 1948."

They are confident that the application they submitted "places Israel’s genocidal acts and omissions within the broader context of its 25-year apartheid, 56-year occupation, and 16-year siege imposed on the Gaza Strip."

Related News

Oct. 7 attack major Israeli intel failure: New Shin Bet chief

17 Palestinians killed since dawn in Israeli bombing of Gaza

They came with evidence

The South African team stated that Palestinians have been killed by the relentless bombing of "Israel" wherever Palestinians sought shelter, whether in schools, hospitals, mosques, or churches, "and as they tried to find food and water for their families." They have been killed if they failed to evacuate, killed in the places to which they have fled, and even killed while they attempted to flee along Israeli-declared safe routes. They described the level of killing as "so extensive that those whose bodies are found are buried in mass graves, often unidentified."

The team provided figures and statistics to back its statement mentioning that in the first three weeks alone, following 7 October, "Israel" deployed 6,000 bombs per week. At least 200 times, it has deployed 2000lb bombs in southern areas of Palestine designated as "safe". "These bombs have also decimated the north, including refugee camps," emphasizing that 2000lb bombs are some of the biggest and most destructive bombs available.

"Israel has killed an unparalleled and unprecedented number of civilians. With the full knowledge of how many civilian lives each bomb will take," said the team. They further elaborated that more than 1,800 Palestinian families in Gaza have lost multiple family members, and hundreds of multigenerational families have been wiped out of the civil register with no remaining survivors. Mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, and cousins, are often all killed together. They affirmed that the latter is nothing short of the destruction of Palestinian life and emphasized that it is inflicted deliberately and that "no one is spared, not even newborn babies."

"Israel" violates the Genocide Convention 

Adila Hassim, an advocate of the High Court of South Africa, declared that Israeli acts violate articles 2b and 2c of the Genocide Convention. She listed those acts, starting with leaving close to 60,000 Palestinians wounded and maimed, the majority of whom are women and children, while shedding light on the fact that the healthcare system in Palestine has collapsed. 

She elaborately presented how the Palestinians are suffering mentally and physically in which a large number of Palestinians, mainly children, are arrested, blindfolded, forced to undress, loaded onto trucks, and taken to unknown locations. 

Hassim described the conditions imposed by "Israel" on Gaza as "deliberate and calculated" causing physical destruction of Gaza and forced displacement of Palestinians. According to her statement, 85% of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced forcefully by "Israel". This is evident by the first evacuation order on October 13 that led to the evacuation of over one million people, including children, elderly individuals, wounded, and others. Hassima described that order as "genocidal" and pointed out that it proved more evidently that the actions committed by the occupation were calculated as no humanitarian assistance was permitted. All necessities including fuel, water, and food had been deliberately cut off.  

The first hearing started at 10:00 am before the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, The Netherlands. The second hearing will be tomorrow where, according to Court procedure, the occupation will try to "defend itself".

  • Gaza Strip
  • Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
  • Palestine
  • International Court of Justice
  • International Criminal Court
  • Israel
  • Israeli occupation
  • Gaza
  • ICJ
War on Gaza

War on Gaza

Most Read

Lebanon's PM Nawaf Salam meets with US envoy Morgan Ortagus in Beirut on April 5, 2025 (Dalati Nohra via AP)AP)

Morgan Ortagus to exit US role in Lebanon amid policy shift

  • Politics
  • 1 Jun 2025
A Palestinian woman mourns as she embraces the body of her daughter Mayar Abu Odeh, 8, who was killed in an Israeli army strike on Gaza. at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (AP)

French port workers block arms shipment to 'Israel' amid Gaza genocide

  • Politics
  • 4 Jun 2025
It may well be due to the longstanding relationship between MI6 and HTS, via Inter Mediate, that Britain was the first Western country to recognise their assumption of government in Syria. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

How MI6 helped HTS seize Syria

  • Opinion
  • 31 May 2025
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP)

Boston Consulting Group withdraws from GHF

  • Palestine
  • 3 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
War on Gaza

Read Next

All
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/pentagon-chief--nato-likely-to-back-trump-s-5--defence-spend
Politics

Europe spent $3 trillion on defense, but got little in return - FT

Power, parties, and scandal: Trump’s ties to Epstein: Telegraph
Europe

Power, parties, and scandal: Trump’s ties to Epstein - The Telegraph

Eilat port as seen from the sea, occupied Palestine, March 12 2009 (wikimedia commons)
Politics

YAF operations forced 80% plunge in Eilat port revenues in 2024

EU backs International Criminal Court after US sanctions judges
Europe

EU backs International Criminal Court after US sanctions judges

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS