International Relations & Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor is heading the SA delegation at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hear today’s court’s decision on whether it will order Israel to take provisional measures such as a ceasefire to halt the killing in Gaza.

Business Day reports that legal experts believe the ICJ is poised to order emergency measures against Israel.

This may cover humanitarian relief, but they do not believe it will include a ceasefire.

Israel will offer the ICJ a set of newly declassified documents to counter SA's arguments of genocidal intent, The New York Times reported yesterday.

These include the text of orders to military units.

It hopes these will show it was planning for the health and well-being of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. However, there are big gaps in the coverage of the declassified materials, the newspaper said, and at key times in the conflict.

The documents have not yet been made public, but the paper reported on a preview of the set, saying they cover more than 30 orders from top military and government leaders.

The NYT notes that there were clear gaps in the material, such as during the first days of the war, when Israel said it would shut off water and electricity to Gaza.

It said the materials were ‘curated’ and they did not seem to cover a significant portion of the military orders issued to Israeli soldiers, or the decisions made by its Cabinet. 

Judge Joan Donoghue, the court’s president, will announce the decision of the 17 judges at 2pm (SA time).

The ICJ said owing to the considerable interest in the case and the limited number of seats available in the Great Hall of Justice, ‘only one seat will be allocated per embassy’.

Only 15 seats will be available in the public gallery for members of the public on a first-come first-served basis.

Full Business Day report

Full report in The New York Times