South Africa on Thursday accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, saying that even the October 7 Hamas attack could not justify such alleged actions. Pretoria has lodged an urgent appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to force Israel to "immediately suspend" its military operations in Gaza. Israel has dismissed the case as "atrocious" and "preposterous". "No armed attack on a state territory no matter how serious... can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention," said Pretoria's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.
