Israel reacts to genocide accusations at UN court hearing, calls South Africa 'legal arm' of Hamas

Israel on Thursday (Jan 11) called South Africa a "legal arm" of Hamas militants as lawyers presented a "genocide" case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Lior Haiat, who is the foreign ministry spokesman, described South Africa's case over Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip as "one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy in history".

South Africa claimed that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and demanded an emergency suspension of the military campaign in Gaza.

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Israel has dismissed the case as "atrocious" and "preposterous" and vowed to set out a robust defence on Friday.

Pretoria's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said that "no armed attack on a state territory, no matter how serious... can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention".

He added that "Israel's response to the October 7 attack has crossed this line and given rise to the breaches of the convention".

On the day the case was being heard, thousands of pro-Israeli protesters gathered in front of the UN's top court, carrying Israeli and Dutch flags. They were also carrying posters with images of people taken hostage by Hamas.

Separately, a pro-Palestinian march was also present with red and green coloured smoke symbolising the Palestinian flag.

Heavy police presence made sure both sides do not clash, leading to a situation of chaos in two days of hearings, as the World Court will hear South Africa's arguments on Thursday and Israel's response on Friday.

Later this month, a ruling on the emergency measures is expected. The court will not rule at that time on the genocide allegations.

Watch: Panel of 17 Judges presides over South Africa's genocide case against Israel

October 7 attack

Hamas militants launched an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel, killing about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, claimIsraeli authorities. Hamas had also taken some 250 people as hostages, some of them were later returned as part of a deal in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

After the attack, Israel responded with several strikes on Gaza and have continued its offensive since then killing at least 23,210 people, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

What is a genocide

The intentional killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group is regarded as genocide.

The United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948 defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

A document by the UN mentioned that Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin first coined the word "genocide" in 1944 in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. The word consists of the Greek prefix genos, which means race or tribe, and the Latin suffix cide, which means killing.

Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict after the Hamas attacks. However, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

(With inputs from agencies)