South Africa to ICJ: Israel seeks to wipe Gazans 'off the face of the earth'

The South African government demanded on Thursday that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order the State of Israel to end its military operations against Hamas terrorists in Rafah and across the Gaza Strip.

South Africa claims the Israel military operations seek to “destroy Palestinian life and to wipe them off the face of the earth.”

In January, South Africa accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza in a formal legal case submitted to the ICJ in The Hague.

“Israel’s genocide has continued apace since the last court hearing and has just reached a new and horrific stage,” South Africa Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela argued, without producing any tangible evidence.

In February, the ICJ dismissed a request from South Africa that the ICJ impose urgent measures against Israel for its planned military operation against Hamas terrorists in Rafah.

British professor Vaughan Lowe who represents South Africa at the ICJ further claimed that it was “increasingly clear” the Israeli operations in Rafah were carried out to implement its “end game for Gaza to be utterly destroyed as an area of human habitation.”

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, another member of the South African legal team, argued, “From the onset, Israel’s intent was always to destroy Palestinian life and to wipe them off the face of the earth. Rafah is the final stand.”

During the World Court proceedings in The Hague, the South African legal team accused the Israeli government of “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

South Africa has failed to condemn Hamas for the Oct. 7 massacre of Israel's southern border communities and continues to accuse the IDF of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, despite measures Israel has taken to facilitate the evacuation of Gazan civilians out of the combat zone in Rafah and to reopen border crossing to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

In January, the German government publicly rejected the genocide charges against Israel at the ICJ.

"The Federal Government firmly and expressly rejects the accusation of genocide that has now been made against Israel at the International Court of Justice. This accusation has no basis whatsoever,” the German government stated.

Furthermore, Berlin blasted the terrorist organization Hamas for massacring and kidnapping innocent Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, saying: “Hamas' goal is to wipe out Israel. Since then, Israel has been defending itself against the inhumane attack by Hamas."

The United States and other Western democracies have also rejected the false “genocide” charges against Israel.

In a report released earlier this month by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), it was revealed that the Gaza Health Ministry, run by Hamas, confessed that it cannot identify more than 10,000 claimed war casualties.