By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has been granted Israel six more months to respond to South Africa’s legal claims that it’s committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel was meant to reply to South Africa’s submissions by the end of July 2025, as a result the deadline has been extended to 12 January 2026.
The order was issued on Thursday, 18 April 2025.
According to the order, Israel requested an extension for three main reasons:
(1) Procedural and substantive problems relating to the timing and manner of South Africa presenting its evidence, with many of those issues still open for the court to decide;
2) The parallel new ICJ proceeding Israel will soon need to contend with to respond to claims of starvation and cutting off humanitarian aid and
3) The voluminous number of additional claims by other states, like Ireland, against Israel, who Israel must now also respond to, along with South Africa.
South Africa objected to the extension on the basis that there was insufficient justification. It also argued that any delay would be unjustifiable based on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Fullview learnt South Africa is in the process of producing thousands of documents to try to prove its genocide case against Israel.
At the start of the proceedings, top Israeli officials predicted a verdict could take anywhere between 18 months to three years, with the three-year mark now looking more realistic.
There are additional questions about whether the delay of the ICJ proceeding will also allow Israel more time to publicly produce its own close to 90 criminal probes into extreme cases where there were suspicions of potential war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers over departing from the rules of engagement or other regulations.
South Africa has also condemned the bombing of civilian targets in Gaza by Israel, following a missile strike last week on al-Ahli Hospital.
“Attacks on health facilities, medical personnel and patients are considered a war crime under the IV Geneva Convention of 1949,” Dirco said.
It pointed out that the killing of 15 Palestinian health and civil defence workers in Gaza last month “are prohibited by international law and constitute war crimes”.
The war began on 7 October 2023 when Hamas carried out a cross-border attack on Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has killed at least 51,065 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is also seeking to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant to advance its own criminal probe, which might be closed or, alternatively, lead to indictments.