Israel rebuffs genocide charges by South Africa, calls allegations 'baseless'

Israel on Friday (Jan 12) rebuffed the genocide claims made against it, saying that it does not seek to destroy the Palestinians in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and called South Africa's allegations "baseless".

"What Israel seeks by operating in Gaza is not to destroy a people but to protect a people, its people, who are under attack on multiple fronts," Tal Becker,Israel's legal adviser at ICJtold the International Court of Justice.

South Africa launched an emergency case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel violated the UN Genocide Convention which was signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust.

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Pretoria wants judges to order Israel to "immediately" end the Gaza campaign that began after the Oct 7 Hamas attacks.

At least 23,469 people, mostly women and children, have lost their lives in Israel's offensive, as per Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Becker said that South Africa had "regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture."

Watch |Israel hits back to charges at ICJ, says intention is to destroy Hamas not Palestinian people

He then, by making use of pictures and videos, painted a graphic image of the horrors of the Oct 7 attacks by the militant group Hamas.

Hamas militants "tortured children in front of parents, parents in front of children, burned people... systematically raped and mutilated," he said.

Israel's legal adviser at ICJ highlighted that the attacks by Israel have been in self-defence and in no way was targeted at the residents of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

"Israel is in a war of defence against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people," said Becker.

"In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide," he said.

"If there have been acts that may be characterised as genocidal then they have been perpetrated against Israel," he added, referring to what he called a "proudly declared agenda of annihilation" on the part of Hamas.

'Israel is fighting genocide', says Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the run-up to the hearings said that "the State of Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide".

"A terrorist organisation carried out the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and now someone comes to defend it in the name of the Holocaust? What brazen gall. The world is upside down," he added.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the South African case was "unfounded".

(With inputs from agencies)