South Africa asked the UN's top court on Thursday (16) to suspend the Rafah offensive as part of its case in The Hague. The country accuses Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinian people face “ongoing annihilation.”
The hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, come after South Africa called for additional emergency measures to protect Rafah, a city south of Gaza where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering.
The country also asked the court to order Israel to allow unimpeded access to Gaza for UN officials, organizations providing humanitarian aid and journalists and investigators. South African lawyers added that Israel has so far ignored and violated previous court orders.
“The key point today is that Israel's stated objective of wiping Gaza off the map is about to be realized,” South Africa's legal representative, Vaughan Lowe, told the panel of judges.
“Furthermore, evidence of horrific crimes and atrocities is literally being destroyed and demolished, in effect alleviating accountability for those who committed these crimes and made a mockery of justice,” he said.
South Africa presented arguments in support of its request for additional emergency measures this Thursday (16).
Israel, which has denounced South Africa's claim that it is violating the 1949 Genocide Convention as unfounded, will respond on Friday (17). In previous documents, the organization emphasized that it had intensified efforts to obtain humanitarian aid in Gaza, as the ICJ had ordered.
Source: CNN Brasil
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