Israel’s prime minister defended this on Sunday the war led by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip is “of unparalleled morality”in response to South Africa’s accusations of genocide before the International Court of Justice.
“We will continue our defensive war, the justice and morality of which are unparalleled,” Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the opening of a meeting of his government, stressing that the Israeli army is acting “in the most moral way possible” in the Gaza Strip.
The military “does everything it can not to hurt civilians, while Hamas does everything it can to hurt them and use them as human shields,” the prime minister criticized.
The head of government questioned countries such as South Africa, which are “giving lessons” to Israel, while millions of people suffer from other wars, such as those in Syria and Yemen.
“All they are doing now is boasting, lies and vanity,” he criticized, reaffirming that Israel will continue the war it launched against the Islamist group Hamas in October “with unparalleled justice and morality.”
On Friday, South Africa formally accused Israel of genocide crimes in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza at the International Court of Justice, the UN’s main judicial body, in The Hague.
In a statement, the Pretoria government said an application has been filed with the International Court of Justice to initiate proceedings against Israel in connection with alleged violations of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the ‘Convention to prevent and punish genocide’). Genocide Convention”) regarding the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“The executive ordered that the International Court of Justice in The Hague be approached for an order requiring Israel, which is also a member state, to refrain from acts that could constitute genocide or related crimes under the Convention.’, the South African Department of Foreign Affairs (DIRCO) emphasized in the statement accessed by Lusa.
“On December 29, 2023, an application was submitted to the Court in this regard, requesting the Court to urgently declare that Israel is acting in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. to fulfill these obligations and take a series of related actions,” he added.
Pretoria stressed that South Africa is “obligated by treaty to prevent the occurrence of genocide” as a signatory to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have caused 21,822 deaths since the war began on October 7, according to the Hamas government, most of them women, children and teenagers.
The attacks were launched in retaliation for an unprecedented assault by Hamas commandos that killed around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to the latest official Israeli figures.
Source: DN
