The Arab League has voiced support for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its deadly military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The first session of the legal proceedings filed by South Africa is set to begin on Thursday at the ICJ in The Hague.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said late Wednesday that he hopes for “a fair and brave judicial ruling to halt this aggressive war and put an end to the Palestinian bloodshed.”
He hailed South Africa “for filing the lawsuit that prioritizes human values above all considerations.”
South Africa filed on Dec. 29 an application instituting proceedings against Israel before the ICJ.
The African country suspended relations with Israel on Nov. 21, in response to its army’s intensified attacks on the Gaza Strip. And later on Dec. 29, it filed a petition with the ICJ to initiate genocidal proceedings against Tel Aviv.
Israel has pounded the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas in which Tel Aviv says killed around 1,200 people.
At least 23,357 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 59,410 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
About 85% of Gazans have been displaced, while all of the population is food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and less than half of the aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.
Key points in Israel’s second genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza.
- Israel’s attacks have left close to 60,000 Palestinians wounded and maimed, the majority of them women and children. This in circumstances where the healthcare system has all that collapsed.
- Large numbers of Palestinian civilians, including children, are arrested, blindfolded, forced to undress and loaded on to trucks taken to unknown locations. The suffering of the Palestinian people, physical and mental is undeniable.
- Israel has deliberately imposed conditions on Gaza that cannot sustain life and are calculated to bring about its physical destruction … by displacement.
- Israel has forced – forced – the displacement of about 85% of Palestinians in Gaza. There is nowhere safe for them to flee to.
- Israel’s first evacuation order on 13 October required the evacuation of over one million people including children, the elderly, the wounded, and infirm.
- The order itself was genocidal. It required immediate movement, taking only what could be carried while no humanitarian assistance was permitted. And fuel, water and food and other necessities of life had deliberately been cut off. It was clearly calculated to bring about the destruction of the population.
MEE, AA
AA
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.