South Africa accused Israel on Thursday of subjecting Palestinians to genocidal acts at the opening of hearings at the top UN court on a case brought against the devastating Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
In the case brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, South Africa demands an emergency suspension of Israel's military campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
"South Africa contends that Israel has transgressed Article Two of the (Genocide) convention, committing acts that fall within the definition of genocide. The actions show a systematic pattern of conduct from which genocide can be inferred," Adila Hassim, advocate of South Africa's high court, told the ICJ.
South Africa points to Israel's sustained bombing campaign which has killed over 23,000 people in the small, densely populated Gaza Strip, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel has said South Africa's case is baseless.
Israel launched an all-out war after a cross-border rampage on October 7 by fighters of Gaza's ruling Hamas in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage back to Gaza.
The ICJ is hearing South Africa's arguments on Thursday and Israel's response to the allegations on Friday.
It is expected to rule on possible emergency measures later this month. The court will not rule at that time on the genocide allegations - those proceedings could take years.
The ICJ's decisions are final and without appeal, but the court has no way to enforce them.
With the politically charged case attracting global attention, supporters of both sides of the case planned marches and rallies in The Hague.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media platform X: "I want to make a few points absolutely clear: Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population."
South Africa and Israel are both parties to the convention, which obliges them to not commit genocide and also to prevent and punish it.
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