Is Turkey joining South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel?

Turkey will seek to join the South African lawsuit against Israel for genocide before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, confirmed Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday.

Turkey has decided to seek joining the South African lawsuit for genocide against Israel before the ICJ, emphasized Fidan at a joint press conference with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi.

During the meeting in the capital city of Ankara, the two discussed Palestine and the situation in the Gaza Strip, among other topics.

With this step, we hope that the process before the ICJ will progress in the right direction, added Fidan.
Stating that Turkey’s efforts on this application have been ongoing “for a long time,” Fidan said that Ankara will soon complete its legal work on the case.

In the meantime, we will continue working with all friendly and allied countries on what else can be done on this issue and which countries can further join, he stated.

Fidan said that Ankara will continue to stand by the Palestinian people “in all circumstances.”

Recall that at the end of last year, the Republic of South Africa filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. In a provisional ruling in January, Tel Aviv was ordered to halt genocidal acts and take measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.

Israel, namely, has been conducting an offensive on the Palestinian enclave since the cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7 last year, which killed about 1,200 people. Since then, more than 34,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, and thousands have been injured amid massive destruction and severe shortages of supplies.

Israel has also imposed a crippling siege on the coastal enclave, leaving most of its population, especially the residents of the northern Gaza Strip, on the brink of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip into internal displacement with acute food shortages, clean water, and medicines, while 60 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to United Nations data.