After besieging and bombing the Gaza Strip for three months as part of its war against Hamas, Israel was charged with genocide at the International Court of Justice on Thursday. The court orders an emergency suspension of the military operation.

South African lawyers presented their case to a packed courtroom in The Hague, presenting as evidence the words of Israeli officials, including the defense minister Yoav Gallant, the said in October that Israel would impose one complete siege in the territory because it was fighting “human animals.”

Israel categorically denies the genocide charge and will present its defense on Friday, the second part of the two-day hearing before the United Nations’ top judicial body. The hearings mark the first time that Israel has chosen to personally defend itself in such an environment, a sign that much is currently at stake as Israel’s international standing in much of the world is deteriorating due to the victims his election campaign in Gaza is being damaged.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the proceedings on Thursday as “a topsy-turvy world” in which his country is faced with such allegations.

“Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide,” he said, referring to the war in Gaza that began after Hamas and other armed groups carried out attacks on October 7 in which about 1,200 people were killed. According to Israeli officials, about 240 people were taken hostage.

Genocide is among the most serious crimes a country can be accused of, and the accusation has particular significance in Israel, which was founded after the murder of Jews in the Holocaust. While the South African government claims it is pursuing its mission to stop a genocide, analysts say it is also motivated by long-standing domestic support for the Palestinian cause, dating back to the presidency of Nelson Mandela, an ardent supporter of Palestinian rights Palestinians.

To constitute genocide, there must be a demonstrable intent of the perpetrators to physically destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. according to the UN Genocide Convention, which Israel has signed. However, intent is often the most difficult element to prove in such cases.

Decisions of the court are binding, but the court has few enforcement options.

Israel’s closest ally, the United States, has strongly defended the country’s campaign against Hamas, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken this week called South Africa’s accusation “baseless” and “counterproductive.”

But American and European officials have increased pressure on Israel in recent weeks to limit the scope of its military operations, and many nations in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have sharply criticized Israel for the devastating consequences of its campaign against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

According to Gaza health authorities, more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the past three months, most of them women and children. The vast majority of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents have been forced to leave their homes since the war began, increasing the risk of illness and disease hungeraccording to international organizations.

South Africa, which filed suit last month, argued that Israeli leaders and lawmakers had expressed intent to commit genocide in their statements. A South African lawyer showed a video of Israeli troops dancing and singing that “there are no innocent citizens” and said Israeli soldiers “understood the inflammatory words” of their prime minister.

“There is an extraordinary peculiarity in this case,” lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi told the court, “that Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and people holding official positions have systematically and explicitly declared their genocidal intent.”

He argued that Israel’s “genocidal intent” is “rooted in the belief that the enemy is in fact not just the military wing of Hamas, or indeed Hamas in general, but is embedded in the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza.”

Although the trial on the genocide allegations could take years, the court could decide on possible emergency measures in the coming weeks. As part of its request for an emergency settlement to end the military operation, South Africa asked the court to lift evacuation orders and allow Gazans to have food, water, shelter and clothing.

Israeli officials argued that Hamas should be charged with genocide and other crimes and that many of Israel’s critics had inadequately condemned the group. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lior Haiat, called Thursday’s negotiations “one of the greatest hypocrisies in history,” adding that Hamas “calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of Jews in its convention.”

Mr. Haiat also said that the genocide case brought by South Africa ignored the atrocities committed by Hamas in its terrorist attacks in southern Israel on October 7.

South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 but said the scale of Israel’s military response in Gaza was unjustified. He told the court that the Israeli offensive created conditions for Gaza residents aimed at “bringing about their physical destruction.”

Mr. Ngcukaitobi, the South African lawyer, said the statements of Israeli officials like Mr. Gallant – who said after the Hamas attack that Israel would allow “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” into Gaza – were tantamount to an order for the physical destruction of the residents of Gaza and for “communicated state policy”.

“This leaves no room for ambiguity,” Mr Ngcukaitobi said. “It means creating conditions for the death of the Palestinian people in Gaza, dying a slow death due to starvation and dehydration, or dying quickly due to a bombing or a sniper, but dying nonetheless.”

Israeli leaders said South Africa’s allegations distort the meaning of the genocide and the purpose of the 1948 Genocide Convention. They point to millions of messages sent through various channels urging civilians in Gaza to evacuate to safer areas ahead of bombings, and say they are constantly working to increase the amount of aid coming into Gaza.

Hamas welcomed South Africa’s decision to bring the case, saying in a statement on Thursday it looked forward to “a decision that does justice to the victims” and called on Israel to “stop the aggression.”

The trial was also celebrated by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where hundreds gathered in city squares, according to Palestinian news agencies. The Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian Authority, which partially monitors the area, thanked South Africa in a statement, calling the proceedings “a historic event in the process of the shared Palestinian and South African struggle in the face of injustice and genocide.”

But in Gaza, many feared the case would have little or no impact on their reality. “This is all nonsense – it has been over 90 days and all we hear are words,” said Abdul Qader Al-Atrash, a 32-year-old Gaza resident.

“Nothing will change,” he said. “The only thing we are thinking about right now is how we will get water for our family, where we will charge our phones and whether we will have something to eat tomorrow.”

Reporting was contributed by Isabel Kershner, John Eligon, Ameera Harouda, Abu Bakr Bashir, Anushka Patil And Rawan Sheikh Ahmad.