Israel says South Africa exploiting ICJ on behalf of Hamas

Israel on Thursday accused South Africa of exploiting the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to help the Islamist militant group Hamas by again petitioning the World Court to take measures against Israel.

"South Africa continues to act as the legal arm of Hamas in an attempt to undermine Israel's inherent right to defend itself and its citizens, and to release all of the hostages," Israel's foreign ministry said.

"The repeated requests for provisional measures made by South Africa in order to assist Hamas are yet another cynical exploitation of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which has already twice rejected the baseless attempts to deny Israel its right and obligation of self-defense," it said.

Officials in South Africa did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

South Africa in January asked the World Court to declare that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and to order Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza. The court instead issued a more general order that Israel must make sure it prevents acts of genocide.



Reuters