Belgium becomes latest country to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

Belgium has formally joined South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

The UN’s highest court, based in The Hague, announced that Brussels had filed a declaration of intervention. In doing so, Belgium will be joining countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico, Spain and Turkey, among others. Nicaragua also temporarily applied to join the case, but withdrew just two months later, without providing a reason.

Belgium’s intervention does not signal support for either Israel or South Africa’s accusations, but is intended to help clarify the interpretation of international law in the context of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

South Africa introduced the case to the ICJ in December 2023, just about two months after the Oct. 7 massacre, alleging that Israel’s response to the Hamas attack breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. 

Israel has consistently rejected the accusation as baseless. It has also accused Durban of acting as an emissary of Hamas, citing affiliations between Hamas-linked organizations such as the Al-Quds International Foundation and a broader network of South African banks and institutions, and has condemned South Africa for what it describes as legal incitement against Jerusalem.

Israel has asserted that the high numbers of casualties cited by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry are due to the terror group’s strategy of operating in densely populated areas. 

Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi described the South African accusation as a “blood libel.”

Similarly, the United States has firmly rejected South Africa's charges of “genocide” against Israel presented at the ICJ.

“Genocide is one of the most heinous atrocities that any individual can commit. Those are allegations that should not be made lightly ... we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide,” said U.S. State Department Spokesman Matt Miller.

Germany, one of Israel's strongest allies in the European Union, announced earlier this year that it would defend Israel against the false genocide charges. The German government emphasized that Israel is acting in self-defense against the Hamas terrorist organization, which openly calls for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide.

Several legally binding but unenforceable ICJ rulings have instructed Israel to do everything possible to take all possible measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, including the provision of humanitarian aid.

Hamas claims that more than 70,000 people in Gaza have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023, and 395 since the recent ceasefire, which began on Oct. 10. Although the figures have been disputed, they have not yet been independently verified.

In September, Belgium recognized an independent Palestinian state alongside several other countries, though The Times of Israel reported that such a move was conditioned on Hamas being excluded from any future leadership role in Gaza.