South Africa accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and demanded that the UN's top court order an emergency suspension of its devastating military campaign. On the first of two days of hearings at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, South African advocates argued that Israel's offensive aimed to bring about "the destruction of the population" of Gaza.

They pointed to three months of Israeli bombardment that has killed more than 23,000 people in the Palestinian enclave and made most Gazans homeless. An Israeli blockade on supplies of food, fuel and medicine has also created what the UN describes as a humanitarian catastrophe.