 The 11th and 12th of January will go down in history as days when a powerful case was made at the International Court of Justice against Israel. South Africa presented some very strong charges against Israel of committing genocidal acts. Israel's response was well to say that it was acting in self-defense and everything was Hamas' fault. What happened during these two days? What were the charges levelled by South Africa? And what lies ahead in this process? We go to Abdul to find out. Abdul two very important days, I think that will go down in history. Even many years from now, I think the arguments that were made, the proceedings will remain very significant. So could you first maybe take us through day one, very important South Africa's case, which is made very strongly, widely, at least widely covered on social media. We'll come to the mainstream media later. But what was South Africa's case and what were the kind of arguments they were presenting? Well Prashant South Africa's case is based on the claim that Israel has been, what it is doing in Gaza is basically a violation of the 1948 Geneva Convention on Genocide, which basically both of them are parties of, both of them, both Israel and South Africa have signed it and therefore they are there. And the lawyer, South Africa's lawyers on Thursday basically put five point set of, you can say, with evidences, allegations or you can say charges against Israel, which basically is a combination of what has happened, what Israel has been doing in Gaza since October 7th. So they have summarized it in five basic heads, which of course starts with that mass killing of Palestinians and civilians, which basically also includes children. As we all know, around more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed and that includes around 10,000 children, including babies, newborn babies. So that basically is the first set of charges which South Africa has brought, the extent of the killings and the gravity of that situation on the ground. The second set of charges are related to how Israel has been deliberately causing bodily and mental harm to most of the Palestinians in Gaza. Through, of course, bombing their houses, bombing civilian facilities, bombing different kinds of support systems and completely destroying them so that they do not, they are not left with any mechanism, which basically can address to their grievances, their trauma and so on and so forth. So apart from kind of wounding around 60,000 plus Palestinians, it has also caused a kind of mental trauma. Israeli attack has also called mental trauma and it has completely destroyed all the mechanisms which basically can address these kind of situations. So that is the second set of charges. The third, of course, is related to how Israeli bombings in Gaza has caused mass displacement of Palestinians. As we all know, more than 80% of the Gaza's pre-war population has been displaced. Most of them are living in the temporary shelters. Even those temporary shelters have been bombed by Israelis and therefore there is nowhere in Gaza which is safe. So that basically is part of the third set of allegations, which also includes the Israeli blockade on food and other essential commodities, which basically as an attempt to kind of force Palestinians to leave or kind of commit a mass genocide in the region. So it basically cites the statements given by various authorities, Israeli authorities including Prime Minister and Defence Minister, ever since the early days of war, which basically led to the imposition of blockade, how it has basically prevented all international mechanisms, including the International Security Council resolution to prevent the aid from flowing into the Gaza and therefore using starvation as a weapon, depriving Palestinians of basic amenities. So this is the third set of charges. The fourth, of course, is the destruction of the healthcare, which is related to Israeli attacks since the early days on hospitals, clinics, health staff, international groups, which are basically providing medical aid to the Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment. So attacks on health staff, attacks on hospitals, which of course by itself is a war crime, is basically set of charges which related to the fourth main point. The fifth and the final set of charges are related to how Israel has basically pursued a policy of preventing Palestinian births. So pregnant women have been displaced, the hospitals where there were incubators have been destroyed, how the babies were killed, not only in the hospitals, but also in the places, in homes, Palestinian homes were targeted with pregnant women and so on and so forth. Pregnant women were moved from one place to another forcibly to basically prevent them from having basic set of healthcare which is required to have a healthy birth. So these are the five sets of, you can say, charges which were brought to prove South Africa's claim that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday. Right, of course, Abdul, Israel on Friday responded to these charges, many reports saying that it was largely arguments full of diversion and obfuscation. So what was Israel's response to these very significant charges? Well, Israel has, one can say, of course the judges will decide, but what was there on display on Friday was, it seems that Israel was not bothered about responding to these points specifically, but kind of trying to discredit South Africa's overall petition on technical grounds in particular that they were not consulted or they were not given chance to respond to these allegations before bringing the case into the ICJ. This is one major defense which the Israeli advocates presented in front of ICJ. Apart from that, they have, of course, they have repeated the claims which they have been making since the beginning of the war or beginning of the point that how Israeli bombing creates basically genocide in Gaza. They have been claimed, their lawyers claimed in front of ICJ that what Israel is doing is primarily in self-defense in response to what happened on October 7th by the Palestinian resistance group which basically led to the killing of around 1200 people. They tried to equate their crimes against the Palestinian children and newborn babies while showing the pictures of some babies killed during the Israeli, sorry, during October 7th attack. That was their defense. Of course, they have also said that at least in fact that South Africa has a long history of collaboration with Hamas and they are basically trying to basically claim that Hamas is primarily a terrorist organization and South Africa's links with Hamas basically discredit its petition in the ICJ. They have also said that tried to justify their clings of Palestinian people, particularly the claims of attacks on civilians and attacks on hospitals, saying that Hamas has been, as we all know, this has been their claim since the first day of war that Hamas has been using hospitals and civilian residential areas as basically a shield to kind of carry out their attacks against Israel. Of course, they have also tried to discredit the evidences presented by South Africa in form of statements made by Netanyahu, Gala and other top officials that how they have repeatedly said that they will wipe out Palestinians from Gaza Palestinians in Gaza are nothing but human animals and they will be treated like that, how they have threatened, asked them to leave the territory, how they have forced them to evacuate northern Gaza and so on and so forth. And all those statements were presented as evidence. Israeli lawyers basically claim that all of these statements which basically runs more than dozens of pages in South Africa's petition is basically are random statements made by angry Israeli officials who did not mean what they were saying and so and so And so of course, apart from the fact that there were technical points brought in to discredit a completely South Africa's petition, rest of the defense is as experts have opined seems quite weak and basically does not add, does not refute basically South Africa's evidence is presented in the ICJ. And therefore it looks as if now, of course, the judges will decide looks quite weak. The Israeli refusal to the South Africa's case looks quite weak. Abdullain free also, what lies ahead for this case? What are the next steps as far as is concerned? Well, it is expected that the final word, if it comes, it may take years basically to come. But since South Africa has also appealed for an immediate intervention based on the situation and based on the fact that delay will basically cause further destruction in Gaza and more killing of Palestinians at that time given the urgency of the matter, South Africa has also asked for an interim order, asking for intervening intervention by the ICJ to ask Israel to stop its war and take some remedial measures like increased humanitarian aid inside Gaza. It seems that ICJ may deliver that interim verdict within a week or two or maybe few weeks from now onwards. And of course, the nature of that intervention, of course, we are in no position to say, but given the evidence is presented and given the arguments made, it looks like that ICJ may ask Israel to kind of have basically in the interim period a ceasefire and more humanitarian aid. But whether Israel will follow that verdict or not, that is an altogether different matter given the fact that though ICJ verdict is binding, the implementation lies in the United Nations Security Council. Only the United Nations Security Council can intervene if some country refuses to abide by the judgment made by the ICJ. And therefore, it ultimately comes down to what United Nations Security Council will do and given the fact that the US has a veto there, we are in no position to say whether there will actually be any action against the Israeli war in Gaza. Thank you so much, Abdul. Not to mention the fact that the composition of the ICJ itself may, you know, leads to certain questions on what kind of verdict might come out as well even in the short term also important to remember. But thank you so much for that analysis. That's all we have in this weekend episode of Daily Debrief. We'll be back on Monday with a fresh episode. 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