South Africa takes Israel to UN court for genocide

Destruction caused by Israeli bombardment in the central Gaza Strip

South Africa has launched a case at the United Nations' top court alleging that Israel's military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.

The filing and Israel's decision to defend itself at the International Court of Justice set up a high-stakes showdown before a panel of judges in the Great Hall of Justice.

The case will likely drag on for years. At its heart is the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip. Pics/AP

The convention defines genocide as acts such as killings "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".
South Africa's 84-page filing says Israel's actions "are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part" of the Palestinians in Gaza.

It asks the ICJ, also known as the world court, for a series of legally-binding rulings and wants the court to declare that Israel "has breached and continues to breach its obligations under the Genocide Convention", and to order Israel to cease hostilities in Gaza, offer reparations, and to provide for reconstruction of what it has destroyed in Gaza.

Israel's government swiftly rejected the genocide claim and said that it would send a legal team to the Hague "to dispel South Africa's absurd blood libel".

Israeli strike kills senior Hamas leader in Beirut

An apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed Hamas' No. 2 political leader Tuesday, marking a potentially significant escalation of Israel's war against the militant group and heightening the risk of a wider Middle East conflict. Saleh Arouri, who was the most senior Hamas figure killed since the war with Israel began, was also a founder of the group's military wing. His death could provoke major retaliation by Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah militia. Israel was on high alert for an escalation with Hezbollah on Wednesday.

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