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

ADDS MORE DETAILS

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.

"South Africa hereby requests the Court to indicate further provisional measures and/or to modify its provisional measures indicated on 26 January 2024 in the case of the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip ... to ensure the safety and security of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, including over a million children," stated the request.

South Africa further said that the situation then "perilous" is now "so terrifying as to be unspeakable."

Touching on the extreme lack of food and starvation in the besieged enclave, South Africa reminded that its previous view based on the facts presented in its application was that Palestinians in Gaza were at "immediate risk of death by starvation, dehydration and disease as a result of the ongoing siege by Israel."

However, Palestinians in Gaza are no longer at "immediate risk of death by starvation," it noted, citing reports regarding Palestinian deaths from starvation.

"These deaths are 'man-made, predictable and entirely preventable.' It is predicted that they will increase exponentially and not linearly in the absence of a cessation of military activities and a lifting of the blockade," read the request.

Stressing that Palestinian children are starving to death as a" direct result of the deliberate acts and omissions of Israel" in violation of the Genocide Convention and of the court’s order, South Africa claimed that Israel has repeatedly used humanitarian aid as a "bargaining chip in negotiations" through "its creation of a hostile, inoperable environment for aid agencies."

South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel to the ICJ in late December and asked it to grant emergency measures to end the bloodshed in Gaza.

The court on Jan. 26 ordered Israel to take "all measures within its power" to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza but fell short of ordering a cease-fire.

It also ordered Israel to take "immediate and effective" measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip.

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.