Officials in Israel on Friday denounced an International Court of Justice order seeking to prevent genocidal actions in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, but also expressed relief that the court did not order it to halt its military campaign.
Israeli officials feared the judges would order an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as South Africa had requested in its original petition. The UN tribunal eventually ordered Israel to act to ensure its soldiers and leaders complied with the 1948 UN genocide convention, but stopped short of demanding an end to the war.
Israel has categorically rejected the accusation that it is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. After the interim ruling on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked the court.
“The very idea that Israel is committing genocide is not only false, it is outrageous, and the court’s unwillingness to discuss it is a mark of shame that will last for generations,” Mr Netanyahu said.
But he said the court ruling had upheld Israel’s right to defend itself after the October 7 attacks by Hamas that prompted it to launch a war in Gaza.
“Like any state, Israel has the basic right of self-defense. The court rightly rejected the shameful request to cancel this right,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Raz Nizri, Israel’s former deputy attorney general, said Israel was already taking most of the actions ordered by the court, such as ensuring humanitarian aid to Gaza and punishing statements that could incite genocide.
“And there was no order to stop fighting,” he said. “It is extremely important that no such order was given.”
Many Israelis believe that accusing South Africa of genocide amounts to an inversion of reality. They accuse Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that ruled Gaza, of committing genocide in the Oct. 7 attack, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel, authorities say. Another 240 were taken hostage by Hamas and other militant groups, many of whom remain captives in Gaza.
“There has certainly been an attempted genocide of the Jewish people by Hamas, the barbaric Nazis,” said Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said Israel did not need “to be lectured on morality” by the court. The judges had noted some of Mr Gallant’s previous comments – including that Israel was at war with “human animals” – when debating whether Israeli officials had used genocidal rhetoric.
In their ruling, the judges of the UN court said they were gravely concerned about the fate of the hostages and called for their immediate release.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 25,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials in the enclave. Most of Gaza’s more than two million residents have fled their homes fleeing Israel’s airstrikes and ground invasion.
