Johannesburg: Foreign Minister of South Africa, Naledi Pandor, Sunday November 12, 2023 said she expected the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against the Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We call on the prosecutor [of the ICC] to speed up the investigation and explore breaches of three of the four crimes under ICC jurisdiction: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” Pandor wrote in an opinion piece published in South Africa’s Sunday Times.
“We expect that warrants of arrest should be executed for those most responsible as per the ICC principles of command and superior responsibility,” she said, adding that these include Netanyahu and some of his cabinet members.
South Africa is among the countries strongly standing behind the Palestinians from the day one.
It is also one among as many as 12 countries that have recalled ambassadors and diplomats from Israel in condemnation of the occupational forces’ bombardment of Gaza.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also had addressed a mammoth rally in support of the Palestinians and their demand of Free Palestine on October 14, 2023.
“All the members of the National Executive Committee who are standing here are pledging our solidarity with the people of Palestine. We stand here because we are deeply concerned about the atrocities that are unfolding in the Middle East”, he said while holding the Palestinian flag and Palestinian kufiyya hanging on his shoulders.
South Africa - host to the largest Jewish community in Sub-Saharan Africa, is also witnessing a series of rallies in solidarity with Palestinians mainly in the capital Johannesburg, Cape Town and other major cities.
In a related devlopment, Irish lawmakers have prepared a motion calling for the imposition of EU-wide economic sanctions on the Israeli occupation and refer it to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate it for war crimes.
Belgium too has called for sanctions against Israel.
Latest reports coming from besieged Gaza said the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has surrounded the Al Shifa Hospital and are forcibly evicting the wounded from the premises.
“Israeli forces are forcibly evicting the wounded onto the streets, leaving them to face inevitable death”, Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said.
About 650 patients at al-Shifa Hospital, including 36 kids, face ‘inevitable death’ from evictions, the Director of the hospital said.
The United Nations confirmed that the “collapse of services and communications” at hospitals in northern Gaza is seriously hampering health officials.
Situation in the occupied West Bank too is tense where Israeli raids, especially in Jenin refugee camps, and settlers' attacks have escalated since Oct 7.
The number of deaths in the ongoing Israeli military attacks since October 7 has surpassed 11,100, including more than 8,000 children and women, the government media office in Gaza said on Sunday.
The Zionist regime in Israel Friday revised its death toll in Hamas Operation al Aqsa Flood from 1,400 earlier claimed to 1,200.
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