South Africa has accused Israel of breaching the United Nations Genocide Convention, in its ongoing brutal war against Hamas in Gaza.

In its case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa argued that even the deadly October 7 Hamas attack could not justify Israel’s military response.

South Africa in its appeal at the ICJ, asked the court to force Israel to “immediately suspend” its military operations in Gaza.

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said “No armed attack on a state territory, no matter how serious… can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention.

“Israel’s response to the October 7 attack has crossed this line and given rise to the breaches of the convention”.

The top lawyer for South Africa, Adila Hassim said Israel’s bombing campaign aimed at the “destruction of Palestinian life” and had pushed Palestinians “to the brink of famine”.

“Genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts”.

Israel has however dismissed the case as “atrocious” and “preposterous” and vowed to set out its defence on Friday.