CAPE TOWN, (PIC)
South Africa called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for using starvation as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip by preventing humanitarian aid from entering the Strip since last Sunday.
South Africa’s Foreign Ministry considered, in a statement on Wednesday, that the Israeli occupation’s use of starvation as a weapon in its aggression on Gaza constitutes a genocide against the Palestinian people.
The statement added that the people of Gaza are facing immeasurable suffering and are urgently in need of food, shelter, and medical supplies.
Some humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire agreement was reached on January 19, but Israel announced on Sunday that it would freeze aid deliveries until Hamas accepts its terms for extending the ceasefire’s first stage.
While the Israeli occupation announced that it wants to extend the first phase of the ceasefire until mid-April, the Palestinian resistance insisted on moving to the second phase of the agreement, which would lead to a permanent end to the war.
In December 2023, South Africa brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, saying the war in Gaza violated the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Pretoria was joined in its lawsuit by several countries, including Spain, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Türkiye, Chile and Libya.
