Israel rejects genocide case as ‘baseless’ – full statement
Here’s the full Israeli foreign ministry response to news that South Africa has launched a case at the International court of justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of “genocidal” acts in Gaza.
Israel rejects “with disgust” the “blood libel” spread by South Africa in its application to the UN’s top court, Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat posted on social media. He continued:
South Africa’s claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis, and constitutes a despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.
South Africa is cooperating with a terrorist organization that is calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.
The Hamas terrorist organization – which is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and sought to commit genocide on 7 October – is responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by using them as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid from them.
Israel is committed to international law and acts in accordance with it, and directs its military efforts solely against the Hamas terrorist organization and the other terrorist organizations cooperating with Hamas.
Israel has made it clear that the residents of the Gaza Strip are not the enemy, and is making every effort to limit harm to civilians and to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
We call on the International Court of Justice and the international community to completely reject South Africa’s baseless claims.
Israel rejects with disgust the blood libel spread by South Africa in its application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
South Africa’s claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis, and constitutes a despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.
South Africa… pic.twitter.com/dqyhY8WYE0
— Lior Haiat 🇮🇱 (@LiorHaiat) December 29, 2023
Key events
Closing summary
It’s 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’re about to close this blog. Our live coverage will resume later today. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it. Any case at the ICJ is likely to take years to resolve, but South Africa has called for the court to convene in the next few days to issue “provisional measures” calling for a ceasefire.
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At least 21,507 people have been killed in Gaza since the war with Israel broke out nearly 12 weeks ago, according to Friday figures from the territory’s health ministry. That figure included 187 fatalities over the previous 24 hours. At least 308 people have been killed while sheltering in UN shelters in Gaza since the war began, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees also said.
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The UN’s top aid official has “strongly condemned” reports that Israeli troops opened fire on an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) had earlier on Friday accused Israel of firing on an aid convoy as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army. Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said the convoy was fired upon despite being “clearly marked”. “Attacks on humanitarian workers are unlawful,” he added.
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The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said he is “very concerned” about the growing threat of infectious diseases facing the people of Gaza. Nearly 180,00 people are suffering upper respiratory infections and about 136,400 cases of diarrhoea have been recorded since mid-October, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post on Friday. Half of the diarrhoea cases have been among children aged under five, he said.
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The Joe Biden administration has once again bypassed congressional review for weapons sale to Israel. The US state department said secretary of state Antony Blinken informed Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale for equipment required to make the 155mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.
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Israel has detained at least 14 Palestinians, including a child, during its latest raids inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Friday. On Thursday the UN published a report deploring what it said was a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the West Bank and urged Israeli authorities to end violence against the Palestinian population there.
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Qatari mediators have told Israel that Hamas has “agreed in principle” to resume talks on the release of further hostages held in Gaza, according to a report by Israel’s Walla news on Friday. But a senior Hamas official later told Al Jazeera there is currently no talk of a hostage exchange before fighting in Gaza stops. Separately, a Hamas official said that a delegation from the militant group was due in Cairo on Friday to look at an Egyptian plan for a ceasefire that would end the war in Gaza.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is “gravely concerned” about the further spillover of the conflict in Gaza which could have “devastating” consequences for the entire region, his spokesperson has said. In a statement on Friday, Guterres warned of a “continued risk of wider regional conflagration” the longer the conflict in Gaza continues.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it located and destroyed a hideout belonging to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in northern Gaza. An investigation by IDF troops found the apartment, located on the outskirts of Gaza City, as well as a large tunnel system under it which was part of a network used by senior Hamas members, an IDF spokesperson said on Friday.
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Iran has announced it has hanged four people it claims were engaged in “sabotage” on behalf of Israel. The three men and one woman had been sentenced to death on charges of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”, and “corruption on Earth” through their “collaboration with the Zionist regime”, and were executed in Iran’s north-west province of West Azerbaijan.
Three Palestinian brothers who were detained by Israeli soldiers in Gaza have said they and other men were beaten, stripped to their underwear, burnt with cigarettes and subjected to other forms of mistreatment during their detention.
Sobhi Yaseen, his brothers Sady and Ibrahim told Reuters they were taken by the Israeli military from their homes in northern Gaza in early December, and held for up to two weeks at unknown locations including a military barracks or camp.
Sobhi told the news agency that while he was detained, he was beaten and that his captors were “smoking and putting out cigarettes on our backs, spraying sand and water on us, urinating on us”.
Ibrahim described having his hands bound and being blindfolded as he was held for interrogation. He said he was not allowed to sleep and forced to stand for hours, while soldiers “would hit you alternately in the head and body”.
In response, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson’s office said it was operating “to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities” and rescue hostages captured by the Palestinian militant group. Detainees were treated in accordance with international law, and were often required to hand over clothes to ensure they were not carrying weapons or explosives, the office said.
The UK ambassador to the United Nations underscored her country’s commitment to Israel’s security during her address to security council members in New York.
Barbara Woodward, speaking at a UN security council meeting earlier today, noted Israel’s need to address the threat posed by Hamas “but too many civilians have been killed”.
She said Israel must comply with international humanitarian law and clearly differentiate between terrorists and civilians during its military actions.
Israel must also stop settler violence immediately and hold the perpetrators accountable, she said, as she urged Israel to adhere to its commitments and cease all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) should demonstrate a genuine commitment to a two-State solution, she added.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Gaza, Israel and the occupied West Bank.
A Hamas official has responded to Israeli media reports that the militant group has “agreed in principle” to resume talks on a new hostage release deal.
As we reported earlier, a report claimed Qatari mediators have told Israel that Hamas “agrees in principle” to return to the negotiating table to try to reach a deal on the release of further hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a weeks-long pause in fighting.
Osama Hamda, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera that there is currently no talk of a hostage exchange before fighting in Gaza stops.
He added that a possible release of captives in exchange for a month-long ceasefire, a detail that was reported by Israeli media, has not been discussed.
A US citizen living in Egypt was arrested in Kenya after allegedly seeking to join a terrorist organisation in the wake of the Hamas 7 October attacks on Israel, authorities said.
Karrem Nasr, 23, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, was arrested on 14 December after flying from Egypt to Nairobi, where he was planning to meet with members of the al-Shabaab terrorist group before travelling to train in Somalia, where the terror organisation is based, according to federal prosecutors.
Nasr was “motivated by the heinous terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas” on 7 October and “devoted himself to waging violent jihad against America and its allies,” they said.
He was returned to the US on Thursday and was scheduled to appear on Friday before a federal magistrate in Manhattan, AP reported. He has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Julian Borger
Any case at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) is likely to take years to resolve, but South Africa has called for the court to convene in the next few days to issue “provisional measures” calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In March 2022, the ICJ ordered Russia to halt its offensive in Ukraine, an order which was supposed to be legally binding, but Moscow ignored it anyway. Any such ruling however is likely to significantly sway international public opinion.
Article IX of the Genocide Convention allows any state party to the convention to bring a case against another to the ICJ, even if it doesn’t have any direct link to the conflict in question. Last year, the court ruled that the Gambia could bring a genocide claim against Myanmar. The court also ruled in a case between Croatia and Serbia that depriving a people of food, shelter, medical care and other means of subsistence constitutes genocidal acts.
Susan Akram, director of the international human rights clinic at Boston University, said:
Genocidal intent is assumed to be the most difficult element to prove, but Israelis in charge of prosecuting this conflict have made a plethora of statements that easily prove the requisite intent to ‘destroy in whole or in part’ the Palestinian population in Gaza.
As examples, Akram pointed to Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant’s reference to Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” and Israeli army Major General Ghassan Alian’s subsequent statement that: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”
Biden bypasses Congress again for weapons sale to Israel
The Joe Biden administration has once again bypassed congressional review for weapons sale to Israel as more than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since October 7.
On Friday, the US state department said that secretary of state Antony Blinken informed Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale for equipment required to make the 155mm shells that Israel has already purchased function. The State department said:
Given the urgency of Israel’s defensive needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer.
The emergency determination allows the purchase to bypass the requirement of congressional review for foreign military sales.
Earlier this month, Blinken made a similar decision, approving $106m worth of 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel.
For the full story, click here:
A member of the UK parliament, Claudia Webbe, has hailed South Africa’s decision to launch a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice over accusations of Israel committing “genocidal” acts in Gaza.
Webbe, who represents Leicester East, tweeted:
“I fully support South Africa invoking the Genocide Convention today, against Israel, at the International Court of Justice.
The UK government, prime minister and Labour party leader should consider their complicity and position.
Ceasefire now.”
As a UK Member of Parliament, I fully support South Africa invoking the Genocide Convention today, against Israel, at the International Court of Justice.
The UK government, Prime Minister and Labour Party leader should now consider their complicity and position.
Ceasefire Now
— Claudia Webbe MP (@ClaudiaWebbe) December 29, 2023
Palestine foreign ministry ‘welcomes’ South Africa’s launch of genocide case against Israel at ICJ
Palestine’s foreign ministry has welcomed South Africa’s decision to launch a case at the International Court of Justice in which it accused Israel of “genocidal” acts in Gaza.
In a statement released on Friday, Palestine’s foreign ministry said:
Israel’s stated policy, acts and omissions are genocidal in character [,] are committed with the requisite specific intent to the destruction of the Palestinian people under its colonial occupation and apartheid regime in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Urgent intervention and action is needed to protect against and prevent further harm [t]o the Palestinian people.
The court must immediately take action to protect the Palestinian people and call on Israel, the occupying power, to halt its onslaught against the Palestinian people, in order to ensure an objective legal resolution.”