大象传媒

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague has begun hearing a case brought by South Africa, which alleges that Israel's military offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide.

Israel has dismissed the allegation as baseless.

As part of its case at the UN's top court, South Africa is calling for an immediate halt to the Israeli military operation.

Zane Dangor is the Director-General of South Africa鈥檚 Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). He told the 大象传媒鈥檚 Alan Kasujja: 鈥淥ur action is essentially one that we feel compelled to do because we are a state party to the Genocide Convention and we see that this is a textbook case of genocide.鈥�

He condemned the attacks on Israel by Hamas but said, 鈥渢here鈥檚 nothing that could be done on the 7th October that could justify the level of killing that is taking place鈥� in Gaza.

The court is expected to hear from Israeli lawyers on Friday.

(Picture: Shows South Africa鈥檚 legal representatives at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on January 11, 2024. Credit: Selman Aksunger/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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