Turkiye to join South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel

Turkiye on Monday announced to officially submit its declaration of intervention with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over the war in Gaza.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the announcement during a press conference in Cairo. Hakan Fidan said the submission before the ICJ at The Hague is expected on Wednesday.

In May, Turkiye had announnced that it would make a bid after making the required legal preparations to intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ over its genocide in Gaza.

“We condemned civilians being killed on October 7,” the Turkish foreign minister said in a press conference. “But Israel systematically killing thousands of innocent Palestinians and rendering a whole residential area uninhabitable is a crime against humanity, attempted genocide, and the manifestation of genocide,” he added.

As of now, 13 countries have joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, or have indicated that they intend to do so. The ICJ is likely to allow them to voice their opinions and intervene in cases before at The Hague

After South Africa accused Israel of committing state-led genocide in Gaza in December, the ICJ ordered Israel to guarantee that its troops do not perform any acts that could be considered violations of the United Nations Genocide Convention.

In December 2023, South Africa filed the case against Israel, alleging that the latter was responsible for the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. As per the health professionals in the besieged and bombarded zone, the number of deaths resulting from Israel’s war, which started in October, has approached 40,000.

In its appeal to the ICJ, South Africa maintained that Israel breached the 1948 Genocide Convention, which was created in the wake of the Holocaust and mandates that nations take action to stop similar crimes from happening in the future.