As the second day of hearings began Friday at the United Nations’ top court, Israel is rejecting allegations levied by South Africa that its campaign against Hamas amounts to genocide against the Palestinian people, saying that, if anything, it is Hamas that is guilty of genocide.
Although the case is likely to take years to resolve, South Africa is asking the International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip. It’s unclear if Israel would comply with any court order.
Meanwhile, United States and British militaries launched strikes on sites used by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen in retaliation for their attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis say their attacks are aimed at stopping Israel’s war on Hamas, but their targets increasingly have little or no connection to Israel and imperil a crucial trade route linking Asia and the Middle East with Europe.
The Oct. 7 Hamas attack from Gaza into southern Israel that triggered the war killed around 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage by militants. Israel’s air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 23,000 people, some 70% of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Currently:
— Israel defends itself at the U.N.’s top court against allegations of genocide.
— Houthi rebels say U.S.-led strikes in Yemen killed 5 people and wounded 6, raising Mideast tensions.
— Blinken sees a path to peace in Gaza, reconstruction and regional security after his Mideast tour.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
JERUSALEM — Israel argued on Friday that South Africa was trying to defame Israeli leadership and society by accusing the country of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Making Israel’s closing statement, attorney Gilad Noam said South Africa’s case against Israel made the nation look like a state “singularly consumed with destroying an entire population. That is patently false.”
Noam, Israel’s deputy attorney general for international law, argued that compliance with the law was woven deeply into the fabric of the Israeli military apparatus and a core component of the Israeli state since the war that led to Israel’s creation. That war forced an estimated 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in what is known by Palestinians as the “Nakba,” Arabic for “catastrophe.”
“When the cannons roar in Gaza, the law is not silent,” Noam said. “This has been the case since 1948.”
On Thursday, South Africa’s legal team alleged that Israeli leadership had demonstrated “genocidal intent,” pointing to statements made by top officials. But Noam said Israel has no tolerance for statements calling for harm to civilians in Gaza and that the Israeli justice system could consider them to be incitement.
Noam said an order by the court asking Israel to halt hostilities in Gaza would lead to a “perverse situation” in which Hamas would continue to attack citizens of Israel, hold about 136 hostages in the Gaza Strip and prevent displaced Israelis from returning to their homes. It would also set a precedent, he said, in which militant groups like Hamas turn to the international court for protection.
“Yes, there is a heart wrenching armed conflict,” Noam said. “But the attempt to classify it as genocide will turn an instrument adopted by international community to prevent horrors of the kind that shocked the conscience of humanity during the Holocaust into a weapon in the hands of terrorist groups who have no regard for humanity or the law.”
BERLIN — Germany’s government said there is “no basis whatsoever” for an accusation of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“We know that different countries assess Israel’s operation in Gaza differently,” government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement Friday. “However, the Federal Government firmly and expressly rejects the accusation of genocide that has now been made against Israel at the International Court of Justice.”
Given Germany’s Nazi history, Hebestreit said the German government “sees itself as particularly committed to the Convention against Genocide.” The convention is a “central instrument” for preventing future crimes against humanity like the Holocaust, he said.
“We firmly oppose political instrumentalization,” Hebestreit said.
CAIRO — Hamas has condemned U.S.-led strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, saying Washington and London are responsible for any repercussions in the wider region.
“We consider it (the attack) a crime and a blatant aggression against Yemeni sovereignty, and a threat to the security of the region,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement on Telegram.
Hamas and the Houthi rebels are allies, brought together by a common enemy, Israel, and backed by a common sponsor, Iran.
The Houthis have launched at least 27 attacks against commercial shipping since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7. The group says the attacks are in response to the war in Gaza but many of the ships targeted have no connection to Israel.
MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Friday condemned the U.S.-led strikes on Houthi rebel positions in Yemen, calling them “illegitimate from the point of view of international law.”
“The countries that struck, they tried to put their actions on the basis of international law,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to a U.N. resolution adopted earlier this week that demanded an immediate halt to attacks by the Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea. “This attempt was unsuccessful, because the adopted resolution does not provide any right to strike,” Peskov said.
However, he described the rebels’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea as “extremely wrong” and added that Russia “repeatedly called on the Houthis to abandon this practice.”
KYIV, Ukraine — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said attacks by Houthi rebels could not continue with impunity and that overnight strikes by the U.S. and Britain should “degrade and disrupt” their ability to endanger shipping through the Red Sea.
“Over the last month, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea,” he said while on a visit to Ukraine. “That’s putting innocent lives at risk, it’s disrupting the global economy and it’s also destabilizing the region.”
He said this “type of behavior can’t carry on” and reiterated his view that the strikes, which involved British Typhoon jets flying from a British base in Cyprus, were “proportionate and targeted.”
Sunak said initial indications are that the strikes were successful.
“People can’t act like this with impunity and that’s why together with allies we’ve decided to take this action,” he added.
He said he will make a statement to Parliament about the strikes on Monday.
JERUSALEM — The head of the World Health Organization said Friday that Gaza’s main hospital has begun partially functioning once again, after an Israeli operation in early November forced it to shut down.
Director Tedros Gebreysus wrote on X, formerly called Twitter, that the organization has delivered 9,300 liters (2,460 gallons) of fuel to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, allowing a 60-person medical team to begin treating over 1,000 patients. He said Shifa now has a working emergency room and a surgical ward with 40 beds.
The hospital was the site of a major Israeli raid in November. Israel said it targeted the facility because it was hiding a Hamas command and control center, but evidence provided by Israel of rooms in tunnels underneath the hospital did not fully prove the claim.
“We insist, once again, that health must be protected and never targeted or militarized,” Ghebreysus said, calling for increased fuel and medical supplies for hospitals in Gaza.
JERUSALEM — Relatives and supporters of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group marched in Israel on Friday to bring attention to the 136 people remaining in captivity ahead of the war’s 100-day mark.
In one march near Kibbutz Urim in southern Israel, participants sought to focus attention on physical and sexual violence that hostages may be experiencing while in captivity. They bound themselves with red tape and marched behind a woman who writhed in a mobile cage. “Bring our sisters home now!” they chanted.
The marches began as Israeli lawyers sought to defend the country against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Protesters denounced the allegation, brought by South Africa.
“It’s a shame, it’s a shame. We are the one who were murdered, who were kidnaped, who were raped, and we’re going to trial and not the terrorist organization, what is wrong with you?” said Eleanor Sela, one of the marchers.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Israel is accusing South Africa of cherry-picking facts in its case accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
Attorney Galit Raguan told the International Court of Justice on Friday that in its presentation, South Africa barely mentioned Hamas outside of its initial attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which started the ongoing hostilities.
She said South Africa has also ignored Israel’s attempts to mitigate civilian harm in its ground offensive in Gaza by warning of attacks in advance, working with hospitals to provide assistance and urging evacuations in advance of operations.
South Africa “paints a dire picture, but it is a partial and deeply flawed picture,” she told the court.
She accused Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian facilities to launch military operations and shelter fighters, and suggested the militant group sought civilian casualties to help sway opinion against Israel.
“Hamas has built a military strategy founded on embedding its assets and operatives in and amongst the civilian population,” she said.
“Urban warfare will always result in tragic deaths, harm and damage, but in Gaza, these undesired outcomes are exacerbated because they are the desired outcomes of Hamas.”
BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Friday that Germany backs the United States-led strikes on Houthi targets in the Red Sea.
“The reaction has our political support,” Baerbock said from Kuala Lumpur after a meeting with Malaysia’s Foreign Minister, Mohamad Hasan, according to the news agency dpa.
She criticized the Houthis for “contributing to the destabilization of an already tense regional situation” with their attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, calling on the group to “stop these attacks immediately.”
Baerbock said German and European Union leaders are working to quickly determine “how we ourselves can strengthen stabilization in the Red Sea and can contribute to this stabilization.”
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his country supports the U.S. and British military strikes on Houthi rebels who have targeted shipping in the Red Sea.
“The Houthi attacks are a clear violation of international law and pose a threat to maritime personnel and trade flows. The US-British action is based on the right of self-defense, aims to protect free passage and is focused on de-escalation,” Rutte said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
“The Netherlands, with its long history as a sea-faring country, places significant importance on the right of free passage and supports this targeted operation,” he said.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Israel is rejecting allegations levied by South Africa that its campaign against Hamas amounts to genocide against the Palestinian people, saying that, if anything, it is Hamas that is guilty of genocide.
Israeli representative Tal Becker asked for a dismissal of the case, calling it “a libel” in his opening statement Friday to the International Court of Justice.
He told the court that Hamas started the violence with its surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which more than 1,200 people were killed, while showing the court images of those people slain.
Becker accused Hamas of hiding its fighters and military assets throughout Gaza in densely populated civilian areas, and making use of mosques, homes, U.N. facilities and hospitals. He also showed the court video of Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowing to continue attacks and annihilate Israel, while discounting the reported death toll of more than 23,000 Palestinians as “unverified statistics provided by Hamas itself.”
“If there is a threat to the Palestinian civilians of Gaza, it stems primarily from the fact that they have lived under the control of a genocidal terrorist organization that has total disregard for their life and well-being,” Becker, who is the legal adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the court.
PARIS — France condemned Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and demanded an immediate halt Friday. France has warships in the region that protect commercial vessels and are working with American and British partners.
“Through these armed actions, the Houthis bear an extremely heavy responsibility for regional escalation,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It noted that this week’s United Nations resolution gives countries “the right to react to these attacks.”
“France will continue to assume its responsibilities and contribute to maritime security in this zone in conjunction with its partners,” it said.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Nine members of a Palestinian family have been killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza.
Relatives gathered Friday at the Abu Yousef Al-Najar Hospital in Rafah to grieve for their loved ones who were killed the day before, their bodies laid out on the ground covered in white sheets.
Hundreds of people have been killed in recent days in strikes across the territory, including in areas of the far south where Israel has told people to seek refuge. Israeli military operations in Gaza have lately focused on the southern city of Khan Younis and urban refugee camps in the territory’s center.
The Israeli military said Friday that, over the past day, it had killed dozens of militants in Khan Younis and the Maghazi camp.
Since the Oct. 7 attack launched by Hamas into southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed, at least 23,469 Palestinians have been killed according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-run Gaza.
Israel has reported 184 soldiers killed since the beginning of its ground operations.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide described the situation in the Mideast as “a low-intensity conflict” that was “now spreading to neighboring countries.”
“The basic conflict is the one we see in Gaza and in the Middle East itself. We must do everything we can to solve it,” Barth Eide said. “At the same time, it is not acceptable that there are regular attacks on shipping through the Red Sea.”
His Swedish colleague Tobias Billström said in a statement to the Swedish news agency TT that the responsibility for the situation “lies with the Houthis. Their attacks in the Red Sea must stop.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — United States-led airstrikes on Yemen killed at least five people and wounded six others, military spokesperson from the Houthi rebels Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said Friday in a videotaped address.
“The American and British enemy bears full responsibility for its criminal aggression against our Yemeni people, and it will not go unanswered and unpunished,” Saree said.
He described 73 strikes hitting five regions of Yemen under Houthi control. He did not elaborate on what the U.S.-led strikes targeted.
BERLIN — The electric vehicle company Tesla announced it will halt most of its production for two weeks in its factory near Berlin, from Jan. 29 to Feb. 11, due to the developing conflict in the Red Sea.
“The armed conflicts in the Red Sea and the associated shifts in transport routes between Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope are also affecting production in Grünheide,” Tesla said in a statement Thursday night. “The significantly longer transport times create a gap in the supply chains.”
Normal operations are expected to begin again on Feb. 12, Tesla said in the statement.
