On January 11, The Republic of South Africa presented its case of Israel committing genocide to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague, Netherlands. A summary of the first day of hearings can be found HERE. On the second day of hearings, January 12, 2024, Israel took the stand to defend itself and the actions it has taken in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas began on October 7, 2023. At the time of this hearing, nearly 24,000 innocent civilians have been killed in Gaza, with thousands more stuck under rubble and presumed dead. Of those 24,000 dead, 10,000 are kids.
Israel had 5 main claims it presented to the council in an attempt to defend itself. Those are the following
1- Right to Defend Itself:
Israel alleges that Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in what began the Gaza War, resulted in them needing to act in self-defense. On October 7, Hamas broke through the Gaza border and killed 1,200 innocent civilians. Israel reacted by declaring war. Under the international self-defense law, self-defense is “the inherent right of a State to use of force in response to an armed attack” and to go into more depth, self-defense law is described as using enough force to remove the threat. In other words, Israel is correct in stating that the initial reaction was self-defense. But, to go by the definition under the law of self-defense, they have already used an equal amount of force and destruction as Hamas initially did. Despite not having the “Duty to Retreat” law, which requires one to “first to attempt to avoid violence before using force”, the harm to civilians (such as the death of 23,000 innocent civilians in Gaza) is against the Geneva Convention IV, which describes the protection of civilians. Israel is bound by this, as they had ratified the treaty in 1951
Nonetheless, while arguing their right to self-defense, Israeli politicians (and those with power) have even gone as far as to publicly state the intentions of the war. This is mentioned in the Application Institution Proceedings. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Lieutenant Colonel Gilad Kinan, the head of the IDF’s (Israel Defense Forces) air force, mentioned how the air force is “work[ing] together with all the bodies in the IDF when the goal is clear — to destroy everything that has been touched by the hand of Hamas”.
- Giora Eiland, Israeli Army Reservist Major General, former, wrote in an online journal on the day of Israel’s order to cut off water supply: “This is what Israel has begun to do — we cut the supply of energy, water, and diesel to the Strip . . . But it’s not enough. In order to make the siege effective, we have to prevent others from giving assistance to Gaza . . . The people should be told that they have two choices; to stay and to starve, or to leave…”
2- Rebuttal of Genocidal Intent:
Israel rebuts the accusations made about them committing genocide with claims of them trying to “minimize” civilian harm but that Hamas is using civilians as human shields. Israel even went as far as to say South Africa is “diluting” the word genocide and was being hypocritical. Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker said to the court “In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide.”
But it is more than just allegations. And it’s rebutted in the next point when Israel tries to argue that the actions that could be seen as genocidal were Hamas’ fault and they were trying to minimize casualties by telling them in advance of attacks to get them to safety. They did this, they argued, through leaflets, online maps, and social media. But they didn’t mention the lack of electricity and the frequency in which civilians are harmed while fleeing on the “safe routes” given to them by the IDF.
3- Genocidal Actions
Despite Israel’s rebuttal, there is proof of the IDF causing harm in instances where innocent civilians were unarmed and clearly not a threat. An example of this is Hala Khreis. A devoted mother and grandmother, Hala Khreis was always taking care of her family, as stated by her kids. On November 12, Hala and her family decided to flee Gaza City to go south. They were told a safe route had been made for them to flee and were told to carry a white flag, the universal symbol of surrender. Hala was holding her five-year-old grandson’s hand as they were walking when she was fatally shot in the chest, as captured on video and shown on Middle Easy Eye. Her grandson, who was holding the white flag, had disappeared during the chaos of her death. Fortunately, the family found out he had continued south with the group and was safe (or as safe as one can be in Gaza) with his uncle.
This is only one instance in, unfortunately, a scenario seen too many times, even before the Israel-Hamas war began.
For example, the case of Shireen Abu-Aklah, the journalist who was shot in the head while reporting IDF soldiers in the city of Jenin, and Rouzan al-Najjar, the volunteer paramedic who was shot and killed by the IDF while helping the injured.
4- Lack of Jurisdiction
Israel argued that South Africa did not discuss the genocide allegations with them before having the ICJ step in, and therefore the ICJ doesn’t have jurisdiction over this case. South Africa has not responded to these claims.
At one point, Israel claimed that Hamas had genocidal intentions, but that is out of the ICJ’s jurisdiction because “the ICJ only has jurisdiction over states, not over acts committed by Hamas and other Palestinian group” In other words, they have jurisdiction over states and not individuals and therefore not Hamas.
5- Humanitarian Aid
Lastly, Israel argued that they are, in fact, doing all they can to elevate the suffering of civilians. Their pieces of evidence include opening the border at Karem Shalom and alleviating the suffering.
Omri Sender, the advocate for Israel, said in front of the International Court of Justice: “On 15 December, Israel decided to open its crossing at Karem Shalom with the expressed intention to improve and upgrade delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza” While they did open it, they did nothing to stop the swarm of protestors chanting “shame!” and blocking aid trucks from going into Gaza.
Nonetheless, the IDF has also gone as far as to state that there is no mass starvation in Gaza, as mentioned in the Israeli newspaper, The Times of Israel.
Col. Moshe Tetro, Head of the Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) for Gaza ( a division of the military body that facilitated entry permits for Palestinians and oversaw imports and exports to Israel), has mentioned that he believed there was no crisis in Gaza saying that, before the war, only 70 aid trucks entered Gaza, but now, as a sign of Israel’s commitment to ease the humanitarian struggles, they have increased the number to roughly 220 aid trucks. This is ultimately incorrect. The United Nations (U.N) reported that an average of 500 aid trucks were allowed into Gaza daily before the war. This is much higher than what Tetro reported. This also means the permission to let in roughly 220 aid trucks daily is still significantly lower than what Gaza is used to, and therefore there is a food shortage and humanitarian crisis.
And as Omri Sender said on that stand on January 12, 2024:
These are just some examples.
Jenna Sosebee 