Israel Rejects Genocide Charges, Tells World Court It Must Defend Itself

Published on January 13, 2024

THE HAGUE—Israel on Friday rejected as false and “grossly distorted” accusations brought by South Africa at the U.N.’s top court that its military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign against Palestinians. Arguing it was acting to defend itself and was fighting Hamas, not the Palestinian population, Israel called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to dismiss the case as groundless and reject South Africa’s request to order it to halt the offensive. “This is no genocide,” lawyer Malcolm Shaw said. South Africa told the court on Thursday that Israel’s aerial and ground offensive—which has laid waste to much of the enclave and killed almost 24,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities—aimed to bring about “the destruction of the population” of Gaza....

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