President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday confirmed that SA will approach the UN Security Council to intervene in Gaza, as fighting in the region continues despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling.

As previously reported, the court on Friday ruled in favour of SA and ordered Israel to limit harm to Palestinians in the region. It also ordered a report from Israel on steps it had taken within a month.

‘The next step will see us turning to the structures meant to oversee this (the court’s orders), starting with the UN Security Council and other agencies.’

The Citizen reports that he repeated his call for the council’s reform and said the country will now look for support from other nations. Ramaphosa also said criticism of the atrocities committed by the Israeli military in the Palestinian territory of Gaza could not be purely dismissed as anti-Semitism.

Neither, he said, was it diminishing the enormity of the Holocaust.

Writing in his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa said he believed that SA is standing on the right side of history by challenging Israel’s action against Palestinians.

EWN reports that he said that as a nation that fought and defeated apartheid, SA had an obligation to stand up for justice and fundamental human rights for all people, everywhere.

Ramaphosa said that SA is being consistent in its application of international law and in condemning Palestinian militant group, Hamas, for its 7 October attack on Israel and in calling for the release of the hostages it’s still holding. But Hamas' attack on 1 000 Israeli civilians could not justify the three-month-long retaliation and killing of more than 25 000 Palestinians.

‘The unprecedented onslaught against the people of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military is an assault on all those who believe in justice, human rights and respect for international law,’ he wrote.

Full report in The Citizen

Full EWN report