Spain announces it will join South Africa’s ICJ ‘genocide’ case against Israel

Spain will join South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide, its foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares says.

Spain is the second European nation after Ireland to join the case, which has also been joined by countries including Chile and Mexico.

In December of last year, South Africa filed a case against Israel over the war in Gaza, declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

Last month, the court ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians, although it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire as requested by South Africa.

In response to an emergency request filed by South Africa, the ICJ also ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Israel has faced increasing international criticism in recent weeks, as it launched a military operation in the southern part of Gaza, where a majority of displaced people from the center and the north of the Strip had escaped to take refuge from the fighting in those areas.

Despite the criticism, the IDF has asserted that Rafah is the last major remaining Hamas stronghold in the Strip, and says that many of the remaining hostages captured by the terror group on October 7 could be held in the city.