Israeli officials are bracing for an expected interim ruling from the international court of justice on South Africa’s allegation that the war in Gaza amounts to genocide against Palestinians, an emergency measure that could expose Israel to international sanctions.
The UN’s top court, which settles disputes between states, said on Wednesday that it would hand down its landmark ruling on Friday. The Hague-based body could order Israel to stop its three-month campaign in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the unprecedented attack by Hamas on 7 October. ICJ rulings are binding and cannot be appealed against, although the court has no power to enforce them.
South Africa filed a case against Israel before the court in December, alleging that the devastating offensive, which has killed 25,700 people, amounts to state-led genocide and stands in breach of the UN’s genocide convention, signed in 1948 as the world’s response to the Holocaust.
The full ruling is likely to take years, and the court is only looking at South Africa’s request for emergency measures to protect Palestinians from potential breaches of the convention on Friday. International legal experts believe an interim decision against Israel this week could serve as a pretext for sanctions.
Lawyers for South Africa alleged in their opening arguments in The Hague that Israel’s bombing campaign amounted to the “destruction of Palestinian life” and had pushed people to the brink of famine.
Israel has dismissed the allegations as “grossly distorted”, arguing it has a right to defend itself after the 7 October attack that killed 1,200 people, and that its offensive is targeting Hamas rather than the Palestinian people as a whole.
The Israeli government struck a bullish tone on Thursday, implying that it was confident that the world court would rule in its favour.
“We expect the ICJ to throw out these spurious and specious charges,” its spokesperson Eylon Levy told a press conference.
Earlier this month the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and no one else.” He was referring to the Iran-aligned “axis of resistance” groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The diplomatic bluster does not, however, correlate with the steps taken by top Israeli officials. Israel’s establishment, and much of the public, have long maintained that the UN and associated bodies are biased against the Jewish state, but the country has taken South Africa’s allegations seriously, sending a robust legal team to The Hague to defend its actions in Gaza.
Netanyahu held a meeting at the Kirya in Tel Aviv on Thursday afternoon to prepare for potential scenarios after the ICJ ruling, attended by the attorney-general, justice minister, strategic affairs minister and national security council director.
Israel also declassified documents on Thursday in an attempt to show it has taken steps to protect civilians and minimise civilian casualties in its Gaza operation.
South Africa’s case has been widely criticised in Israel, the state that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust. Many descendants of survivors cannot understand how their country could be accused of genocide.
Writing in Yedioth Ahronoth, a leading Israeli daily, the commentator Ben-Dror Yemini alleged on Thursday that South Africa had bought the ICJ case at Iran’s request after Tehran “provided generous funding to the governing party in South Africa”.
It is rare for the ICJ to issue emergency measures, although recent interim decisions have been handed down in cases involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya people.
Israel is facing two other major international legal cases over its treatment of Palestinians.
A 2022 UN general assembly resolution requested an advisory opinion from the ICJ on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory”, a move seen as important because while various UN bodies have found that aspects of the occupation are illegal, there has never been a judgment on whether the occupation itself, now in its 56th year, either is or has become unlawful.
The international criminal court also decided in 2021 that it had a mandate to investigate violence and war crimes committed by both Israel and Palestinian factions, although Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognise its authority.
• This article was amended on 26 January 2024 to change the number of people killed in the 7 October attacks from 1,400 to 1,200, the figure given by the Israeli foreign ministry.
