Belize files to join South Africa’s genocide case at ICJ against Israel

Belize has filed a declaration that it will join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Court announced on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“On 30 January 2025, Belize, referring to Articles 62 and 63 of the Statute, filed in the Registry of the Court a document containing an application for permission to intervene and a declaration of intervention in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip,” the Court said in a statement.

In December 2023, South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel, claiming violations of the Genocide Convention in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Several countries have since joined the case, including Nicaragua, Colombia, Cuba, Libya, Mexico, Palestine, Spain and Turkiye.

Israel’s genocidal war has killed more than 47,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured more than 111,000 since 7 October, 2023.

The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

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