APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Israel’s bombing of the Ahli-Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza that killed over 500 civilians and injured more than 1,000 others early this week is “a war crime” for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) should take action against the Tel Aviv authorities, the South African government said Thursday.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told journalists in Pretoria that the South African cabinet saw the Israeli action as a “blatant violation” of international humanitarian law and called on the ICC to immediately act against such a breach.
The failure to act meaningfully by both the ICC and the United Nations would be a demonstration of the total collapse of a rules-based multilateral system, Ntshavheni said.
Hospitals were considered a haven under international humanitarian law, the minister said.
“The Jewish holocaust is enough stain in the history of mankind for the international community to fold its arms, while the Israeli government perpetrates a Palestinian holocaust,” Ntshavheni said.
She said South Africa wants the ICC to investigate the bombing and the crime of genocide in this conflict, and the international community should not allow the perpetration of another holocaust under its watch.
“Similarly, Cabinet condemned the heinous opportunism of the Israeli government to use Hamas’ cowardice to continue its genocide against the people of Palestine,” the minister said.
She called on the Israeli government to stop the bombardment of civilian establishments such as hospitals, schools and homes and to open humanitarian corridors to allow the passage of aid — including food and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, and far more injured as Israel continued with its daily aerial bombing of Gazan neighbourhoods in efforts to annihilate the militant group.
NM/jn/APA