“Right to defense”: Israel responds to genocide complaint before the ICJ

Israel defends its offensive in Gaza before the International Court of Justice, at the same time that its troops cause destruction and deaths in the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli legal team took the floor this Friday, January 12, at the high court in The Hague to refute the arguments presented by South Africa a day earlier, after suing the country led by Benjamin Netanyahu for genocide.

The defense insisted that the actions of its Army are a response to the surprise attack by Hamas that killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 240while showing magistrates footage of the deadly assault, as well as a video of Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowing to annihilate Israel.

“The applicant seeks to frustrate Israel's inherent right to defend itself and leave Israel defenseless,” Israeli legal representative Tal Becker told the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a position also expressed by defense lawyer Malcolm Shaw.

But South Africa argued Tuesday that “no attack, however serious, justifies violations of the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.”

Hamas seeks genocide against Israel

Hamas's armed aggression against Israel occurred three months ago and since then foreign forces have constantly bombed the besieged coastal strip by air, sea and land. More than 23,400 Palestinians have lost their lives, according to the latest figures from the local Ministry of Health, the majority civilians.

However, during the hearing the Israeli representative refuted this death toll by ensuring that they are “unverified statistics provided by Hamas itself” and insisted on pointing out that the Islamist movement started the ongoing hostilities.

“Hamas seeks genocide against Israel,” Becker added, using the same term for the crime South Africa accuses his country of committing.

Israel asks to dismiss the genocide lawsuit against it

In the middle of his reply, Becker assured that the group that controls Gaza hides its fighters and weapons throughout the enclave, in densely populated civilian areas such as mosques, homes, UN facilities and hospitals.

The advisor thus defended Israel from accusations of disproportionate use of force and violation of human rights for its attacks against places full of civilians, including its attacks on hospital centers with thousands of patients, medical personnel and refugees, whose images have been gone around the world.

Is about war in which the most humanitarian workers have died, highlights the United Nations: 142 counted until last December. AND the conflict in which the most journalists lost their lives in 2023: 56, according to a report published by Reporters Without Borders last month. For these actions, RSF denounced Israel before the International Criminal Court.

However, the Israeli lawyer said that the case before the top UN court against his country is “deeply distorted” and called for the lawsuit to be dismissed as “defamation.”

“If there is a threat to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, it is primarily due to the fact that they have lived under the control of a genocidal terrorist organization that has total disregard for their lives and well-being,” Becker stressed.

Although the case is likely to take time to be resolved, Pretoria is asking the International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip. South Africa can sue Israel, because the two governments signed the 1948 Convention for the Prevention of Genocide.

The document defines this crime as “acts committed with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” However, the accusing party must not only demonstrate the magnitude of the fatalities, but also that the actions are committed with the motivation of massive massacres.

While the court's decisions are final and legally binding, it has little power to enforce them. A month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ICJ ordered a halt to the military operation, without success.

Meanwhile, lives continue to be lost in the enclave as the hours go by.

At least nine members of the same family die in an Israeli attack

This Friday, while the Israeli legal team defended the offensive in The Hague, its troops launched new bombings against Gaza. At least nine people, members of the same family, including children, died in an attack on their home in Rafah, in the south of the Strip, where most of the population has been displaced after the first part of the war that concentrated in the north.

“They targeted civilians in their houses. They had nothing to do with anything. People who just wanted to live. Why did they target them? There was no reason. Even the foundation of the house was destroyed. What did they do to them? They were innocent civilians who “They lived with their families. Why did they do it? This is simply wrong,” lamented Rafah resident Fayad Abu Rjeila.

In the midst of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent tour to the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu's Government promised its ally concrete actions against Hamas that would reduce the risk to the lives of thousands of civilians, but in the ground reality is different.

“These are safe areas. There are no military activities here. Here there are only people living peacefully in their homes,” Abu Rjeila stressed.

With AFP, Reuters and AP