The International Court of Justice (ICJ) plans to issue its ruling on South Africa’s request that it order Israel to stop its war in Gaza in open court on Friday at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. Israel time) at The Hague, Netherlands.
South Africa’s News24 said Pretoria government officials had arrived in the Netherlands in for the judgment.
The ICJ held hearings earlier this month on South Africa’s plea to issue provisional measures related to its charges before the court that Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza.
The ruling on provisional measures is preliminary, as the ICJ has yet to hold hearings on the actual genocide charge, which Israel has rejected outright.
In its reply to South Africa’s plea, Israel refuted the genocide allegations, delaring them to be “grossly distorted,” adding that it had the right to defend itself and was targeting Hamas, which had attacked its on October 7, killing over 1,200 people and seizing some 250 hostages, and not Palestinian civilians.
The ruling comes at a critical junction in hostage release negotiations
The ruling will be delivered as Israel is under intense international pressure to halt the war in Gaza while it is in talks over a hostage deal to secure the release of the remaining 132 captives held there in exchange for at least a month-long pause in the war.
Israel has been under tight scrutiny due to the high death toll in Gaza, with Hamas asserting that over 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in war-related fighting in Gaza. Israel has said that at least 9,000 of those killed were combatants.
South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, will be present in The Hague to attend the ruling, a South African government spokesperson said in a post on X.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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