Israel-Palestine live: Israel’s response to South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ ends

Several Israeli officials have spoken out against South Africa's case today at the International Court of Justice.

"If a country that protects itself from a brutal, murderous terrorist attack can find itself in court for genocide, then the genocide convention has become a reward for terrorism and antisemitism," opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a video posted on X.

After meeting with German Vice Chancellor Robert Habak in Jerusalem, Israel's Economy Minister Nir Barkat slammed what he called "antisemitic blood libel plots" and claimed that “anti-Israelism is the new antisemitism".

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett even called the South African lawsuit "the Dreyfus affair of the 21st century", while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that "never before have so many miscreants taken part in such vile lies".

The Times of Israel said that over 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon into the towns of Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot, though no injuries were reported.

Earlier today, the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Authority said "direct Israeli bombardment on an emergency centre in the town of Hanin" killed two male unit members.

Opinion by Joseph Massad. The question is no longer whether the Israeli government is racist and genocidal but whether the Israeli Jewish majority supporting its crimes against Palestinians also fits this description.

READ MORE: How Israel's war on Gaza exposed Zionism as a genocidal cult

US special envoy Amos Hochstein landed in Beirut on Thursday in an attempt to ease tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border and avoid a wider war, Reuters reports.

Hochstein visited several Lebanese officials, including the prime minister, the foreign minister, the army commander and the speaker of parliament.

"I firmly believe that the people of Lebanon do not want to see an escalation of the current crisis to further conflict," he told reporters in the Lebanese capital.

Hochstein reiterated the US's support for a diplomatic solution in order to avoid a spread of the war in Gaza.

Over 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals have signed a petition demanding a ban on Israel taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest, accusing the state of war crimes in Gaza.

“Israel violates human rights,” Lukas Korpelainen, who started the petition, told Swedish-language Finnish news outlet Hufvudstadsbladet, adding: “We don’t think it’s okay for the country to be part of the [Eurovision] to polish its image.”

READ MORE: Eurovision: Finnish artists call for Israel to be banned from contest

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank.

The man, identified as 37-year-old Majdi Abdel Latif Fashfasha, was killed in the town of Jaba, close to Jenin. 
 

UN experts have praised South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel on Thursday.

In a tweet, the UN Geneva HQ sent out a post on X saying that they commend South Africa for bringing the genocide case to The Hague, “at a time when the rights of Palestinians in Gaza are being violated with impunity”.
 

According to Oxfam, the Israeli military is killing 250 Palestinians a day, with many more lives at risk from hunger, disease and cold, the organisation said on Thursday.

That daily death toll exceeds that of any other major conflict of recent years, Oxfam added, as the war on Gaza nears its 100th day.

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East director, said: “The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine.

“It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.”

The number of dead and missing in Gaza has averaged at around 300 per day since the conflict began. By comparison, the highest death toll in the Syrian war, in 2014, was around 300 per day, with a total of 110,000 killed that year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In 2013, an average of 265 people died per day, and 238 per day in 2015.

Syria's population is ten times that of Gaza, so proportionately the Gaza death toll is many times higher.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Thursday that “South Africa’s genocide submission against Israel distracts the world from important efforts for peace and security,” according to Reuters. 

The comments came after South Africa stated that Israeli assaults on Gaza since 7 October demonstrate clear and plausible examples of genocide. 
 

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday, following South Africa’s court case against Israel. 

"South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice... is a historic event in the process of the joint Palestinian and South African struggle in the face of the injustice and genocide,” the ministry said. 

"Holding Israel, the illegal occupying power, accountable, using all legal tools, and through international justice institutions and international law enforcement, is the main focus of the legal strategy of the State of Palestine, and the core of the diplomatic and international movement,” it added.
 

The spokesperson of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Thursday, following South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel. 

In a statement posted on X, he said that the hearing was “one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy” and demonstrated “false and baseless claims”.

He added that South Africa is “functioning as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation”, and is seeking to “allow Hamas to commit the war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual crimes they committed repeatedly on October 7”.

The comments come after South Africa said in court that Israel was demonstrating clear examples of genocide against Palestinians.

Here are some of the latest updates from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as South Africa showcased evidence at the ICJ which it says demonstrates Israel is carrying out genocide against Palestinians. 

• Israel bombed the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al Balah. At least eight people have been reported dead in the attack.
• Israel carried out a campaign of arrests in the occupied West Bank, detaining at least 28 people.
• Air strikes have continued to rain down on central and southern Gaza, while emergency services are unable to reach casualties. 
   

Gaza’s government media office issued a statement on Thursday saying that Israel has killed at least 117 journalists in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October. 

The two latest journalists killed have been named as Fouad Abu Khammash and Mohammed al-Thalathini.
 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Thursday that the death toll in Gaza has now reached 23,469 since the start of the war on 7 October. 

Speaking in court on Thursday, South Africa's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said that no attack "can provide justification for or defend breaches of the [Genocide] Convention".

Israel is a signatory to the Genocide Convention of 1948, which defines genocide and commits states to prevent it.

The comments were echoed by British lawyer Vaughan Lowe, who spoke for the South African prosecution, saying: “No  matter how monstrous or appalling an attack or provocation, genocide is never a permitted response."

He added that South Africa believes that evidence shows that the Israeli government is “intent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, and is doing nothing to punish the actions of others who support that claim”.