Turkey joins South Africa's Israel 'genocide' case at ICJ

People use their mobile phones to take images as victims of Israeli bombardment are rushed into Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on August 7, 2024. [AFP]

Turkey on Wednesday joined South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

A Turkish parliamentary delegation accompanied by the Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands filed a "declaration of intervention" at the ICJ's headquarters in The Hague, according to state television TRT which covered it live.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said in a post on X that the "case brought before the ICJ is extremely important to guarantee that the crimes committed by Israel do not remain unpunished."

South Africa's December 2023 case alleges that Israel's Gaza offensive, launched in retaliation for Hamas' bloody October 7 attack on Israel, breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Israel has strongly denied the accusation.

The case has since been joined by Colombia, Libya, Spain and Mexico.

In a ruling on January 26, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to prevent acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, which have left nearly 40,000 dead.

In June, the court ordered Israel to allow access to investigators mandated by the United Nations to examine the genocide allegations.

While ICJ rulings are legally binding, the court has no concrete means to enforce them.