The Hague - New York: Europe and the Arabs
Israeli Deputy Prosecutor for International Law, Gilad Naoum, said that the picture painted by South Africa before the International Court of Justice of the situation in Gaza is “completely divorced from the facts,” and that the war in the Strip “like all wars, is tragic and terrible for Israelis and Palestinians, and has imposed a human price.” "Expensive, but it is not genocide."
In presenting Israel's response to South Africa's request for the court to take additional interim measures in the context of its case against Israel over the application of the Genocide Convention in Gaza, Mr. Noam said: “Calling something a genocide over and over again does not make it a genocide. Repeating the lie.” "It does not make it a reality here in the Peace Palace (the seat of the court), it cannot be otherwise."
According to the Israeli official, South Africa is “ridiculing the heinous charge of genocide” in its case against his country, and continues to ignore that Israel did not want it and did not initiate it. He said that Israel was defending itself in the wake of the October 7 attacks, in which “thousands of Israeli citizens were brutally slaughtered, mutilated, raped and injured.”
He added that Hamas and other Palestinian factions continue to fire indiscriminate rockets at Israeli cities and towns, causing damage on an unprecedented scale, “destroying entire communities,” and displacing nearly 60,000 people. “It may be years before they can return to their homes and rebuild their communities,” he added.
"The path to peace"
Mr. Naoum said that Rafah is a military stronghold of Hamas and poses a major threat to Israel, adding that the group is holding Israeli hostages in the city. He added: "Only by demolishing Hamas' military stronghold in Rafah will the Palestinians be liberated from the grip of the murderous terrorist regime, and the path to peace and prosperity can finally be paved."
He stressed that Israel is fully aware of the huge number of civilians in Rafah, and Hamas's efforts to use them as "human shields," and for this reason, it "avoided launching a large-scale attack on the city, because it does not want them to be harmed."
He said: “Israel is engaged in an intense armed conflict with a ruthless jihadist terrorist organisation. It not only targets Israeli civilians, but also uses Palestinian civilians to protect itself in complete disregard for their lives or the law. By exploiting the Genocide Convention, South Africa is proposing a twisted reading.” international law under which any armed conflict can be brought to court.”
The inherent right to self-defense
Mr. Naoum said that Israel has an inherent right to defend itself, and added that South Africa is asking the court “to engage in the micromanagement of the operational aspects of the armed conflict,” and wants it to order Israel to withdraw from Gaza to obtain “a military advantage for its ally Hamas, which it does not wish to see.” Defeated.”
"No one is infallible"
Mr. Naoum said that no country was “infallible” and incidents involving alleged violations of the rules of war could occur. He said: “South Africa recalls some individual incidents reported by the media and attempts to present them as evidence of illegal policies.” He added, “Armed conflict is not synonymous with genocide,” and Israel was and remains committed to “acting in accordance with its international legal obligations, including those stipulated in In international humanitarian law and the Genocide Convention.
For her part, the legal advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tamar Kaplan Turgeman, said that at least 132 children, women and men are still being held hostage “in unimaginable conditions,” as Hamas continues to refuse to release them and alleviate the human suffering that the war has brought to all. Concerned parties on both sides, instead prefer "death and destruction as a strategy."
She said that South Africa's statement on Thursday was "so abhorrent, and so out of touch with reality, that it was difficult to believe that we were before a court of law," adding that its claims that Israel had cut off humanitarian aid and medical supplies from Gaza were "completely untrue."
Ms. Kaplan Turgeman said South Africa had not demonstrated any change in the situation that justified the “drastic measures” it was now demanding. She added that the court's approval of South Africa's request would enable Hamas to reconstitute its forces in order to commit "the atrocities of October 7 over and over again as it pledged, which is to sentence the hostages to almost certain death."
She stressed that agreeing to South Africa's request would be tantamount to "standing alongside a terrorist organization," which would undoubtedly celebrate any such decision.
On the other hand, the United Nations affirmed its welcome of any efforts aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza. In this context, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, expressed gratitude to the United States of America, as well as to Cyprus, for working - with the support of other member states - on the path of establishing a sea corridor as an additional route to deliver relief to Gaza.
After months of consultations with the relevant authorities, Haq said that the United Nations agreed to support the receipt of aid and arrange for its dispatch to Gaza from the pier that was established on the coast of the Strip, as long as it respects the neutrality and independence of humanitarian operations.
Haq added: “Given the enormous needs in Gaza, the purpose of the floating dock is to complement the existing land crossings for aid entering Gaza, including Kerem Shalom and Erez. It is not intended to replace any of the crossings.”
Haq said, in the daily press conference, that the first trucks loaded with humanitarian aid arrived on the shore on Friday on the floating dock in Gaza. He explained that this is a multinational effort to deliver additional aid to the Palestinians in the Strip through a sea corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature. He said that the supplies will include humanitarian goods donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations