Israel is set to take a stand this morning to defend themselves in a genocide case that has been launched by South Africa against its country. The hearing started yesterday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Netherlands.

South Africa launched an emergency case late last year arguing that Israel stands in breach of the UN Genocide Convention signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust. Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group's murderous rampage on October 7, when more than 1,200 people were killed and 240 hostages were taken back to Gaza. South Africa condemned Hamas' attacks but said nothing could justify Israel's response, which has killed more than 23,000 people in Gaza. During the opening statements at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague in Netherlands, South African lawyers said the latest Gaza war is part of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians. Tabling their matter in the ICJ, Lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said that distinctive feature of the case was the reiterating and repetition of genocidal speech throughout every sphere of the State in Israel. "The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children, all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice. The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life," said Ngcukaitobi.

Another lawyer representing the country, Vaughan Lowe said that there was nothing that could ever justify genocide. "The point is not simply that Israel is acting disproportionately. The point is that the prohibition on genocide is an absolute. Nothing can ever justify genocide," he said. During their three hour presentation, South African lawyers asked the ICJ to order a suspension of Israel's campaign in Gaza to protect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza from imminent and irreparable loss. "It is not necessary for the court to come to a final view on the question of whether Israel's conduct constitutes genocide. It is necessary to establish only whether at least some of the acts alleged are capable of falling within the provisions of the convention," said another lawyer Adila Hassim. Israel and its ally the United States have dismissed the case as groundless and vowed a robust defence at the Peace Palace in The Hague, which houses the ICJ. "No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas. We will continue our defensive war, the justice and morality of which is without peer," said Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the run-up to the hearings.

United States State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the South African case was "unfounded". "In fact, it is those who are violently attacking Israel who continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews," said Miller. On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa praised the lawyers representing South Africa in the ICJ in Gaza. "When I saw our Minister Ronald Lamola standing in that podium and introducing our case, I felt proud because we as a country, we will forever be on the side of the oppressed," he said during the prayer session held in Mbombela in Mpumalanga in preparation for their 112 ANC Celebration with the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL). Today marks day 98 since the war in Gaza with the organisation Save The Children reporting that at least 10,000 children have been killed.