South Africa accuses Israel of "genocide" in Gaza as World Court hearing begins

South Africa called on the World Court on Thursday to order an emergency suspension of Israel's military operation in Gaza, as the court began hearings in the genocide case brought against Israel.

In the Hague, Netherlands, South Africa's Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola compared Israel's operations in Gaza to the Rwanda genocide: "Rwanda stands out as a stern and severe rebuke to all of us for having failed, for the international community having failed to prevent it from happening. Let us not have to live with the same regret when it comes to Palestine."

Israel says its only means to defend itself is by eradicating Hamas, and blames the Islamist group for all subsequent harm to Palestinian civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.

The case, brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, accuses Israel of violating the 1948 genocide convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, which mandates all countries to ensure such crimes are never repeated.

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