People and health workers unearth bodies found at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on April 23, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
The Hague, February 1 (RHC)-- The Central American country of Belize has filed a declaration to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a new member of the “Hague Group” of countries defending Palestinian rights.
“On January 30, 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 on Friday.
South Africa lodged proceedings against Israel in December 2023 over the regime’s violations of the Genocide Convention in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Several countries have since joined the case and formed the “Hague Group” in defense of Palestinians, including Nicaragua, Colombia, Cuba, Libya, Mexico, Palestine, Spain, and Turkey.
In a statement on Friday, the group said it is grieving the lives, livelihoods, communities and cultural heritage lost due to Israel’s genocidal actions in the besieged Gaza Strip, adding that it was refusing to “remain passive” in the face of such international crimes.
The group said it was “determined to uphold our obligations to end the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine and support the realization of the inalienable right of the Palestinian People to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine.”
The statement also called for international bans on the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel, in all cases where there is a clear risk that such arms and related items might be used to commit or facilitate violations of humanitarian law, international human rights law or the prohibition on genocide.
The Gaza-based Prisoners Media Office says the Israeli regime “systematically” harassed and persecuted Palestinian prisoners and their families before and after their release.
Israel launched its brutal genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance groups led by Hamas carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The Tel Aviv regime failed to achieve its declared objectives of freeing captives and eliminating Hamas despite killing almost 47,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.
Israel was forced on January 19th to accept a ceasefire with Hamas.
