The South American nation “has a responsibility to condemn the crime of genocide,” the submission said.
Bolivia has formally joined South Africa’s genocide lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), according to a court in The Hague.
The South American country on Tuesday applied to intervene in the case, which accuses Israel of committing “acts of genocide” in the Gaza war, in violation of the Genocide Convention.
Bolivia’s move adds to the growing list of countries involved in the incident, including Colombia, Libya, Spain, Mexico, Palestine, Nicaragua and Turkey.
The ICJ ruled in January that Israel must do everything in its power to stop genocide in the Gaza Strip and ensure that UN-commissioned investigators have “unimpeded access” to the enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the court’s interim ruling as “outrageous” and said Israel would continue to wage a “just war.”
A month later, human rights group Amnesty International said Israel had “failed to take minimum steps” to comply with the ICJ’s orders.
South Africa has since appeared before the ICJ several times, arguing that the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza requires new emergency measures.
In late May, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately halt attacks on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, but the ruling Israeli party also ignored this order.
ICJ decisions are legally binding, but courts have no means of enforcing them.
Bolivia, which severed diplomatic relations with Israel in November, argued in its submission to the ICJ that “Israel’s genocidal war continues and the court’s order remains a dead sentence for Israel.”
“Bolivia believes it has a responsibility to condemn this crime of genocide and calls for intervention.”
Israel’s year-long war in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the enclave’s health ministry. This equates to 1 in 55 people living there. On October 7, 2023, an attack led by Hamas, the Palestinian organization that rules Gaza, killed 1,139 people in Israel.
Philippe Lazzarini, director of the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), the main relief organization working in Gaza, said in a post marking the first anniversary of the conflict that people in the enclave continue to endure “unspeakable suffering”. Ta.
“Not a day goes by that families in Gaza are not subjected to untold suffering, as forced displacement, disease, hunger and death are commonplace for the two million people trapped in the bombed and besieged enclave.” said Lazzarini.
