Belgium has joined South Africa (SA) and several other countries in a case brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accuses Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The United Nation’s (UN) Highest Court based in The Hague confirmed that Brussels had filed a declaration of intervention.
Countries such as Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Spain and Turkey have already joined the case.
SA brought the case to the ICJ two years ago, alleging that the offensive launched by Israel in Gaza in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre, breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Israel has rejected the accusation as baseless and accused SA of acting as an emissary of Hamas.
It insists it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the terror group’s fighters operate out of densely populated areas.
In rulings last year, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, including by providing urgently needed humanitarian aid to prevent famine.
–SABC–
