After three months of war against Hamas, Israel faced a charge of genocide at a proceeding at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Jan. 11, as South Africa argued that Israel “means to create conditions of death” in Gaza and demanded the court order an emergency suspension of the military campaign. Israel categorically denied the genocide accusation and presented its defense on Jan. 12, the second day of the two-day hearing in the United Nations’ top judicial body.

“Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting against genocide,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said about the war, which began after Hamas carried out attacks on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people, many brutalized, and led to about 240 being taken hostage, their fate unknown.

Genocide is among the most serious crimes of which a country can be accused. While the South Africa government maintains it is pursuing its case to stop a genocide, analysts say it is also motivated by longstanding domestic support for the Palestinian cause, dating to the presidency of Nelson Mandela, a supporter of Palestinian rights.

“There can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide,” Tal Becker, an Israeli lawyer, said in a speech that opened Israel’s response. “Israel is in a war against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people,” he said.

Israel’s lawyers said that its military had taken significant precautions to protect civilians, giving noncombatants two weeks to leave northern Gaza before Israel invaded the area in late October. They said it was Hamas that had endangered civilians by embedding its military wing inside residential areas.

A verdict in the trial could take years to reach. For now, the court is expected to rule only on whether to order Israel to comply with provisional measures, principally the suspension of its campaign in Gaza, while it considers the genocide charge. The court’s decisions are essentially symbolic; its judges have few means of enforcing their rulings.

For Israelis, it is a perversion of history to face claims of genocide, both because of the brutality of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, and because of the Jewish people’s long history of oppression. The Jewish state was founded in 1948 in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the founders aimed to protect Jews from the same kind of violence with which Israel now stands charged. In an instance of historical irony, Germany announced on Jan. 13 that it would intervene in the case as a third party in Israel’s favor.

[The Shofar acknowledges The New York Times reporting as a major source for this account of events.]