2023-12-31 15:06:00
Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to respond to accusations of “acts of genocide” brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Israeli Prime Minister affirmed, Sunday, December 31, that the war waged by his army in the Gaza Strip was “of unrivaled morality.”
“We will continue our defensive war, the justice and morality of which are without equal,” he continued at the opening of a meeting of his government, adding that the Israeli army was acting “in the most moral manner possible” in the Gaza Strip. The army “does everything to avoid harming civilians, while Hamas does everything to harm them and uses them as human shields,” added the Prime Minister.
“The intention to destroy the Palestinians”
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial body of the United Nations, announced Friday that South Africa had submitted a petition accusing Israel of engaging in “acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
In its request, South Africa asserts that Israel’s “acts and omissions are of a genocidal character, as they are accompanied by the required specific intent […] to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader national, racial and ethnic group of Palestinians,” the ICJ, based in The Hague (Netherlands), said in a statement.
READ ALSO Israeli strikes on Gaza: Hamas discusses ceasefire in EgyptAccording to the country, “by its conduct, through its organs and agents and other persons and entities acting on its instructions or under its direction, control or influence, with respect to the Palestinians of Gaza, Israel fails to fulfill its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” the ICJ said.
“No, South Africa, it is not us who came to perpetrate a genocide, it is Hamas. He would kill us all if he could,” added Benjamin Netanyahu. “Everything you do is just wind, lies and vanity,” he added to the South African authorities.
Nearly 22,000 dead in the Gaza Strip
Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have left 21,822 dead, mostly women, children and adolescents, since the start of the war on October 7, according to the Hamas government.
READ ALSO Hamas-Israel war: the conflict could last “many months”, according to the IDFThey were launched in retaliation for an attack of unprecedented scale carried out by Hamas commandos which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, the majority civilians, according to the latest official Israeli data.
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