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11-10-2024
LA PAZ/ THE HAGUE: Bolivia has formally joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), according to the court in The Hague.
The South American nation filed an application on Tuesday to intervene in the case, which accuses Israel of perpetrating “genocidal acts” in violation of the Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza.
Bolivia’s move puts it among a growing list of states engaged in the case, including Colombia, Libya, Spain, Mexico, Palestine, Nicaragua and Turkey.
In January, the ICJ ruled that Israel must do everything in its power to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and ensure United Nations-mandated investigators have “unimpeded access” to the enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the court’s interim ruling as “outrageous” and said Israel would continue its “just war”.
A month later, rights group Amnesty International said Israel had “failed to take the bare minimum steps” to comply with the ICJ’s order.
South Africa has since returned several times to the ICJ, arguing that Gaza’s desperate humanitarian situation demands new emergency measures.
In late May, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately halt its offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, a ruling Israel also ignored.
While ICJ rulings are legally binding, the court has no means to enforce them.
In its submission to the ICJ, Bolivia, which severed ties with Israel in November, argued: “Israel’s genocidal war continues, and the Court’s orders remain dead letters to Israel.” “Bolivia seeks to intervene since it considers that it has a responsibility to condemn the crime of genocide,” it said.
Israel’s yearlong war in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health. That is equal to one out of every 55 people living there. An attack led by Hamas, the Palestinian group that administers Gaza, killed 1,139 people in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the main relief group operating in Gaza, said in a post commemorating the first anniversary of the war that people in the enclave are continuing to endure “unspeakable suffering”.
“Not a day goes by without families in Gaza being subjected to unspeakable suffering, as forced displacement, disease, hunger, and death have become the daily norm for two million people trapped in a bombed-out and besieged enclave,” Lazzarini said.
It has been one year since Israel began its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s assault on Gaza began on October 7, in response to an attack by armed fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas and other Palestinian groups. Some 1,140 people died during the attack and about 240 were taken into Gaza as captives.
In response, Israel began a vicious bombing campaign and tightened what was already a crushing siege that Gaza has been under since 2007.
Over the past year, Israeli attacks have killed at least 41,615 Palestinians living in Gaza, equal to 1 out of every 55 people living there.
At least 16,756 children have been killed, the highest number of children recorded in a single year of conflict over the past two decades. More than 17,000 children have lost one or both parents.
Despite global condemnations and pleas from international organizations and rights groups, Israel has continued an indiscriminate campaign that has sown terror among the people in Gaza and killed entire multi-generation families. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
