The Israeli government has called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to reject an urgent request submitted by South Africa over the Israeli offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
"The repeated requests for provisional measures made by South Africa, which are based on false claims and deliberate omissions of fact in order to assist Hamas, are yet another attempt to cynically exploit the International Court of Justice in The Hague," a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Oren Marmorstein, wrote on X on Saturday.
"South Africa continues to act as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organization in an attempt to undermine Israel’s inherent right and obligation to defend its citizens from Hamas attacks, and to release all the hostages."
South Africa submitted another urgent request to the ICJ on Friday, calling on the court to persuade Israel to take further steps to prevent genocide of the Palestinians, including a demand that Israel withdraw from Rafah immediately.
The previous measures "are not capable of ‘fully address[ing]’ the changed circumstances and new facts on which [South Africa's] request is founded," the UN court quoted South Africa's petition as saying on Friday.
South Africa had lodged a case against Israel at the end of 2023 for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention committed during the Gaza war.
Israel firmly denies the accusations of genocide. It invokes its right to self-defence after militants from the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas and other extremist groups attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people.
The ICJ will decide on the accusation of genocide as such in a lengthy process that could drag on for years.