War Against Hamas In Gaza Is Act Of Self-Defence: Israel Places Its Arguments In ICJ
Israel’s legal team on the second and final day of preliminary hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) told the court that its war against Hamas in Gaza is an act of self-defence. It said that the two military aims for Israel were to eliminate the existential threat created by Hamas militants and to free around 136 hostages still held by Hamas in the war-ravaged strip. Israel co-agent Tal Becker told judges in the Court that after the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel is “in war of defence against Hamas and not against the Palestinians.”
Reading out some of the experiences in the Hamas attack in Israel, Becker said that there have been “tragic and heartbreaking civilian suffering.” Rejecting South Africa’s petition against Israel under the provisions of the Genocide to order Israel to immediately suspend its offensive in Gaza, Becker said that it is an attempt to deny Israel its ability to meet its obligations to the defence of its citizens, to the hostages and to over 110,000 displaced Israelis unable to safely return to their homes.”
Noting the casualties and the trauma created by Hamas”s attack on Israel, the legal team of Israel insisted that it has the right to defend itself and its citizens. Dismissing the claims that the attack is a genocidal act, Israel counsel Malcolm Shaw said: “There is no genocidal intent here; this is no genocide.” Hamas atrocities “do not justify violations of the law in reply – still less genocide – but they do justify the exercise of the legitimate and inherent right of a State to defend itself as enshrined in the UN Charter,” he added.
Terming South Africa’s petition “profoundly distorted,” Israel accused the petitioner of attempting to “weaponize” the term genocide, which it insisted was a better description of Hamas’s “annihilationist language” about “cleansing” Palestine of Jews. Israel also accused Hamas of diverting billions of dollars of aid and turned the Strip into “perhaps the most sophisticated terrorist stronghold in the history of urban warfare.”
Israel also said that it found in every single hospital searched by its Defense Force the evidence of military use and that it found the weapons hidden in the hospital incubator. Moreover, the legal team of Israel claimed that its efforts to mitigate harm and alleviate suffering in its attack on Gaza “have gone unnoticed.”
UN reiterates its call for an immediate end to violence
Raising its voice again on Friday, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, called for an immediate end to the violence in Gaza. “There must be a ceasefire to end the appalling suffering and loss of life and to allow the prompt and effective delivery of humanitarian aid to a population facing shocking levels of hunger and disease,” OHCHR said in a statement. The organization also noted the damages to the homes, hospitals, schools, bakeries, places of worship, water systems as well as the UN’s own facilities. Describing the situation in Gaza, OHCHR pointed out that more than 23,000 Palestinians died and over 1.3 million people were internally displaced in the strip.
