South Africa files 'urgent request' for additional measures in genocide case against Israel

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) – South Africa on Wednesday filed an urgent request for additional provisional measures and the modification of the ICJ's interim ruling in the genocide case against Israel, said the top UN court.

In its new urgent request, South Africa said it is filing this due to the "new facts and changes in the situation in Gaza, particularly the situation of widespread starvation," the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in a statement.

According to the request, these ongoing acts by Israel are breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and violations of the provisional measures issued by this court in January.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive, now in its 152th day, on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which Tel Aviv said killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 30,700 Palestinians have since been killed and over 72,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.