Day one of the ICJ genocide hearing against Israel: Key takeaways

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has held the first of a two-day hearing in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over the war in Gaza.

Even as the hearing, which will span Thursday and Friday, was being conducted, the ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces killed more than 100 Palestinians and injured nearly 200 over the latest 24-hour reporting period, the Gaza Ministry of Health said on Thursday.

Outside the court, pro-Palestinian demonstrators called for an end to Israel’s military operations.

Here are the key takeaways from the first day of the hearing at the ICJ — and what Friday might hold.

South Africa seeks injunction against Israel to stop the war

The hearing began with a reading of South Africa’s case against Israel and the demand that Israel should immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza as South Africa reminded the court that more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

Pretoria’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, said: “South Africa acknowledges that the genocidal acts and permissions by the state of Israel inevitably form part of a continuum of illegal acts perpetrated against the people, Palestinian people since 1948.”

Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s justice minister, said Israel’s response to the attacks by Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel “crossed a line”.“No armed attack on a state territory, no matter how serious, even an attack involving atrocity crimes, can provide justification for or defence to breaches to the [1948 Genocide] Convention whether it’s a matter of law or morality,” he said.

List of ‘genocidal acts’

Adila Hassim, an advocate representing South Africa’s case, laid out what she argued were a series of violations of the Genocide Convention, which Israel is a party to.

“South Africa contends that Israel has transgressed Article 2 of the convention by committing actions that fall within the definition of genocide. The actions show systematic patterns of conduct from which genocide can be inferred,” she said.

Hassim then listed a number of “genocidal acts” committed by Israel.

The “first genocidal act is mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza”, she said while showing photos of mass graves where bodies were buried “often unidentified”. No one – including newborns – was spared, she added.