South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to try to mount pressure on the Israeli regime to prevent it from afflicting famine on the Gaza Strip, which is enduring a genocidal war by Tel Aviv.
Late last year, the country sued the regime at the court, prompting it to call on Tel Aviv to try to “prevent the commission of all acts within the scope” of the Genocide Convention.
On Wednesday, Pretoria asked the tribunal to order additional emergency measures against Israel, which is breaching the measures already in place.
Also on Wednesday, the South African presidency issued a statement, warning that “the threat of all-out famine has now materialized” in Gaza.
“The court needs to act now to stop the imminent tragedy by immediately and effectively ensuring that the rights it has found are threatened under the Genocide Convention are protected,” it added.
The country also asked the court to order that Israel take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address famine and starvation” in Gaza.
It added that the ICJ, also known as the World Court, had to take these measures without scheduling a new round of hearings because of the “extreme urgency of the situation.”
Israel launched the war against the Gaza Strip on October 7 after al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups against the occupied territories that was staged in protest at intensification of Tel Aviv’s decades-long crimes against Palestinians.
The Tel Aviv regime has also enforced a near-total siege on Gaza, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory to a trickle.
The regime has so far during the war killed more than 30,700 Gazans, most of them women and children.
Israel has vowed not to stop the aggression until realization of its declared goals, including “destruction” of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, which many dismiss as unattainable.
