TEXT OF ISRAEL DEFENDING ITSELF AT THE USELESS UN COURT IN THE HAGUE.

TEXT OF ISRAEL DEFENDING ITSELF AT THE USELESS UN COURT IN THE HAGUE.


AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)

IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)

ISAIAH 34:10
10  It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30  The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031  One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32  And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)

COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AMERICA.

JOEL 3:2 (WW3 OCCURS WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED)
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people (ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(JERUSALEM)(WW3 STARTS BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AND ISRAELIS UPROOTED FROM THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND BRINGS 3 DEAD BILLION IN WW3)

Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah condemn attacks-US, UK airstrikes pound Yemen for first time after weeks of Houthi Red Sea attacks-US official says Iran is primary enabler of rebel group responsible for post-October 7 maritime disruptions; Houthi official vows retaliation, as fears of regional escalation grow-By Agencies and Jacob Magid Today, 5:45 am-JAN 12,24

SANAA, Yemen — Heavy US and British airstrikes pounded targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen early Friday after weeks of disruptive attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebel forces.The strikes targeted an airbase, airports and a military camp, the Houthi rebels’ Al-Masirah TV station said.US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is in hospital due to surgery complications, said in a statement that the strikes targeted Houthi capabilities including drones, ballistic and cruise missiles, costal radar and air surveillance.Unverified images on social media, some of them purportedly of Al-Dailami airbase north of Sanaa, showed explosions lighting up the sky as loud bangs and the roar of planes sounded.Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the strikes killed five members of the Iran-backed group and wounded six.“Our country was subjected to a massive aggressive attack by American and British ships, submarines and warplanes,” Houthi Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Al-Ezzi said, according to official rebel media.“America and Britain will have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression,” he added.Iran and the Hezbollah and Hamas terror groups all condemned the attacks, with Tehran calling them a “clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a breach of international laws, regulations, and rights.”US President Joe Biden called the US and British strikes a “defensive action” after the Red Sea attacks and said he “will not hesitate” to order further military action if needed.First video coming in from US, UK strikes against Houthis in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/CsTpXeimHV— FJ (@Natsecjeff) January 12, 2024-The strikes involved fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles, several US media outlets said. US officials did not immediately confirm the reports when contacted by AFP.“Today, at my direction, US military forces — together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands -— successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” Biden said in a statement, using an alternate spelling of Houthi.He called the strikes a “direct response” to “unprecedented” attacks by the Houthis, “including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history.”“These attacks have endangered US personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation,” he said.“I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”Saudi’s ‘great concern’The strikes were “necessary and proportionate,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.A joint statement by the US, Britain, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and South Korea said the “aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea.”“But let our message be clear: we will not hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats,” it said.Neighboring Saudi Arabia, which is trying to end its involvement in a nine-year war with the Houthis, urged against escalation.“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is following with great concern the military operations,” a foreign ministry statement said, calling for “self-restraint and avoiding escalation.”The Houthis have carried out a growing number of attacks on what they deem to be Israel-linked shipping on the key international route since Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught, describing the attacks as demonstrations of solidarity with the terror group.In his statement, Biden said that on Tuesday the Houthis “launched their largest attack to date — directly targeting American ships.”The Western strikes risk turning an already-tense situation in the Middle East into a wider conflagration pitting the United States and Israel against Iran and its regional proxies.The Houthi rebels say they are acting in response to Israel’s counter-terror offensive in Gaza and have also launched a series of drones and missiles towards Israel.The group has controlled a major part of Yemen since a civil war erupted there in 2014, and is part of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance” arrayed against Israel.A US official briefing reporters after the airstrikes said Iran has been the Houthis’ “primary enabler” and has been “involved operationally” in the rebel group’s recent spate of attacks.“They’ve provided the Houthis the very capabilities used to conduct these attacks,” the US official said.Regarding consequences for Iran, the US official pointed to an ongoing “deep pressure campaign” targeting Tehran for its support of malign actors in the region but declined to offer specifics.“Suffice it to say that we do hold Iran responsible for the role that [it] has played with the Houthis and with the other groups in the region that have conducted attacks against US forces and made (Tehran) aware of that.‘Consequences’The United States and its allies had issued a series of increasingly stern warnings to the Houthis to stop the shipping attacks, although Washington has been cautious about the risks of further inflaming regional tensions.Washington set up an international coalition in December — dubbed Operation Prosperity Guardian — to protect maritime traffic in the area, through which 12 percent of world trade flows.Twelve nations led by the United States later warned the Houthis on January 3 of “consequences” unless they immediately stopped attacks on commercial vessels.But late Tuesday the Houthis launched what London called the most significant attack yet by the Yemeni rebels, with US and British forces shooting down 18 drones and three missiles.The final straw for the Western allies appeared to come early Thursday when the US military said the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into a shipping lane in the Gulf of Aden.It was the 27th attack on international shipping in the Red Sea since November 19, the US military said.The intensifying attacks have caused shipping companies to divert around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, sparking fears of a shock to the global economy.The United States strengthened its military posture in the region immediately after the October 7 terror attacks on Israel, which left over 1,200 dead and some 240 taken hostage into Gaza. Washington subsequently warned Iran and its allies not to escalate the situation.The Biden administration was initially cautious in its response as it is seeking to preserve a fragile peace in Yemen, where a decade of civil war and a Saudi-led coalition’s military campaign have led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Saudi Arabia in ‘tight spot’ as US, UK take on Houthi rebels after weeks of attacks-Experts say Riyadh angling for ceasefire, military exit from Yemen so it can focus on domestic agenda, but situation complicated by Iran-backed Yemeni group’s attacks on shipping-By Robbie COREY-BOULET Today, 4:55 pm-JAN 12,24

Overnight strikes in Yemen have set off alarm bells in Saudi Arabia, which craves de-escalation in its war-torn neighbor so it can focus on domestic reforms, analysts said.Explosions lit up the night sky early on Friday as the United States and Britain pounded scores of targets with more than 100 precision-guided munitions, US Central Command said.The strikes came in response to weeks of disruptive attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed Houthis, who control northern Yemen and say they are firing on Israel-linked ships in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.Saudi Arabia has led an anti-Houthi coalition since 2015 — launching thousands of air strikes of its own against the Iran-backed rebels over the years — but is now angling for a ceasefire and military exit from the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest nation.Even as the scale of the US and British strikes was still coming into focus before dawn on Friday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry published a statement expressing “great concern” and calling for “self-restraint and avoiding escalation.”Anna Jacobs, senior Gulf analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said Saudi Arabia found itself “in a tight spot.”“They are balancing record-low public opinion about the US and Israel with their security concerns about the Red Sea and their desire to deter further Houthi attacks,” she said.Weary of war-Hamas’s unprecedented onslaught on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s military response may have scuppered Saudi Arabia’s hopes for sustained peace in the region, which officials see as crucial for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sweeping Vision 2030 agenda for economic and social reform.The Red Sea coast is a linchpin of the vision, with developers eyeing a slew of resorts that could help transform the once closed-off kingdom into a tourism hot spot.That makes ending military operations in Yemen a central foreign policy goal for Riyadh, one officials hoped would be more feasible in the wake of a surprise China-brokered rapprochement deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran announced in March.Just last month, the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, described progress towards a roadmap that would finally resolve outstanding issues such as paying public sector salaries and resuming oil exports.The most important achievement would be a nationwide ceasefire, building on a truce that first took effect in April 2022 and has largely held despite officially expiring after six months.But the spate of Houthi attacks — 27 in total, according to the White House — on ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea’s southern gateway, has complicated that process.Washington, Saudi Arabia’s most important security partner, announced last month a maritime security initiative, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to secure the Red Sea and which it says brings together 20 countries.Saudi Arabia hosted about 2,700 US troops as of 2022, according to the White House, underscoring the danger, however remote, of retaliatory strikes on Saudi soil.Riyadh has not signed on to Operation Prosperity Guardian, a decision vindicated by Friday’s strikes, said Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the government.“I think Saudi Arabia had no choice but to stay out of the operation given its peace talks with Yemen, but Saudi Arabia is concerned about navigation also, so it’s a difficult position to be in,” he said.‘Double standards’Though Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, leaders pay close attention to public opinion, which could further influence Riyadh’s actions as both the Israel-Hamas war and the crisis in the Red Sea evolve.A rare poll published last month by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy showed 96 percent of Saudis think Arab countries should sever all contacts with Israel “in protest against its military action in Gaza.”Given Washington’s steadfast support for Israel, it is therefore hard to imagine Saudi Arabia would want to involve itself in specific American military operations in the months to come.Riyadh also remembers well how the US resisted going after the Houthis in recent years when Saudi vessels were under attack.“They now see the US going ahead with [strikes] at a very inopportune moment for regional stability,” said Cinzia Bianco of the European Council on Foreign Relations.“They clearly can see the double standards when Israel is at stake, or when they are at stake — how the US reacts radically differently.”In a statement on Friday, US President Joe Biden said he would “not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary” — raising the specter of more strikes and, potentially, more risk of Saudi entanglement.“Everything really is coming together,” said Shihabi, the Saudi analyst.“It’s a cause of concern, absolutely.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

IDF says Hamas commandos slain; UN pans ‘systematic’ refusal of access to north Gaza-As forces continue fighting in Khan Younis in Strip’s south and Maghazi in center, White House notes dangers of starvation amid insufficient aid to civilians-By Emanuel Fabian, ToI Staff and Agencies Today, 2:35 pm-JAN 12,24

The IDF said Friday it had killed dozens of Hamas gunmen during operations in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis and Maghazi in the Strip’s center in the past day, as fighting in the territory continued and as Israel defended its actions at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.At the same time, the United Nations humanitarian office said Israeli authorities were systematically denying it access to northern Gaza to deliver aid and that this had significantly hindered the humanitarian operation there.“The operations in the north have become increasingly more complicated,” said Andrea De Domenico, head of office for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We have systematic refusal from the Israeli side of our effort to get there, to access the north.”Israeli authorities and COGAT — an Israeli Defence Ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories — did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Israel has previously denied blocking the entry of aid.White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Thursday that Gazans are facing starvation and more humanitarian aid must get in.“We recognize that there are real food security issues in Gaza,” he said. “We understand there’s a lot of hunger and starvation in Gaza.”Palestinian Red Crescent personnel check a destroyed ambulance in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on January 11, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)-Kirby said not enough aid trucks were getting into Gaza.Nukhba commanders killed-In Maghazi, the IDF said the 36th Division killed some 20 Hamas operatives, including a commander in the terror group’s elite Nukhba force.In Khan Younis, the 98th Division directed an airstrike on a building used by Hamas, killing seven operatives, the IDF said. According to the IDF, among those killed in the strike was another Nukhba commander, who participated in the October 7 onslaught.Also in Khan Younis, the IDF said troops of the Commando Brigade spotted three Hamas gunmen coming out of the home of an operative and approaching the forces. The commandos opened fire, killing the three.The IDF said Thursday that Hamas used more than 6,000 tons of concrete and 1,800 tons of steel for the hundreds of kilometers of tunnels it built beneath the Gaza Strip, citing new intelligence. It also revealed new video footage of a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis where it believes hostages were previously held by the terror group.The army said information recovered by troops in Gaza, along with the hundreds of underground passages that have been investigated so far, indicated that Hamas invested tens of millions of dollars in its tunnels project.“The Hamas terror organization chose to invest these precious resources in building a terror infrastructure used to harm Israeli citizens and IDF forces, while cynically exploiting the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.Amid the ground operation in Gaza, now nearing its 100th day, the IDF has been operating to demolish Hamas’s main tunnel networks.War erupted between Israel and Hamas after the terror group’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages of all ages — mostly civilians.Vowing to destroy the terror group, Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry has said killed over 23,000 people since. These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 8,500 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.Several hostages freed in a ceasefire deal in late November described being held inside tunnels, which Hamas has laid throughout the Gaza Strip and which Israel says have long been used to smuggle weapons and fighters throughout the enclave.It is believed that 132 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during the late November truce. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 25 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.Israel also believes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is hiding in a tunnel somewhere in Khan Younis.On Wednesday, the military took journalists from international outlets to see the tunnel, and said that so far in the Khan Younis area, troops have uncovered more than 300 tunnel shafts leading to major Hamas tunnels in the area. More than 100 tunnels have so far been destroyed or rendered inoperable.The city, Gaza’s second-largest, has become the focus of Israel’s campaign against Hamas in recent weeks. On Wednesday’s tour for journalists, no residents appeared to be in the area. Israel has ordered residents to evacuate portions of the city as it proceeds with the offensive.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said there are “nearly insurmountable challenges” to aid delivery in Gaza amid bombardment, movement restrictions, fuel shortages and interrupted communications.The WHO says only a few Gaza hospitals are even partly functioning.

Full text: Israel to ICJ-S. Africa genocide case is ‘a libel,’ aimed ‘to deny Israel the right to defend itself’-Setting out Israel’s defense at The Hague, Foreign Ministry’s Tal Becker says: ‘There can hardly be a charge more false, more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide’By ToI Staff Today, 1:43 pm-JAN 12,24

Foreign Ministry legal adviser Tal Becker’s opening address to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on January 12, 2024, as Israel’s representatives presented its defense against South Africa’s allegations of genocide by Israel in Gaza and its call for the court to order an immediate halt to IDF operations there. (Transcribed from delivery.)-Tal Becker: Madam President, distinguished members of the court, it is an honor to appear before you again on behalf of the State of Israel.The State of Israel is singularly aware of why the Genocide Convention, which has been invoked in these proceedings, was adopted. Seared in our collective memory is the systematic murder of 6 million Jews as part of a premeditated and heinous program for their total annihilation.Given the Jewish people’s history and its foundational texts, it is not surprising that Israel was among the first states to ratify the Genocide Convention without reservation, and to incorporate its provisions in its domestic legislation.For some, the promise of Never Again for all peoples is a slogan. For Israel, it is the highest moral obligation.Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew who witnessed the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, is credited with coining the term “genocide”. He helped the world recognize that the existing legal lexicon was simply inadequate to capture the devastating evil that the Nazi Holocaust unleashed.The applicant has now sought to invoke this term in the context of Israel’s conduct in a war it did not start and did not want, a war in which Israel is defending itself against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations whose brutality knows no bounds.The civilian suffering in this war, like in all wars, is tragic. It is heartbreaking. The harsh realities of the current hostilities are made especially agonizing for civilians, given Hamas’s reprehensible strategy of seeking to maximize civilian harm to both Israelis and Palestinians, even as Israel seeks to minimize it.But as this court has already made clear, the Genocide Convention was not designed to address the brutal impact of intensive hostilities on the civilian population, even when the use of force raises “very serious issues of international law and involves enormous suffering and continuing loss of life.” The convention was set apart to address a malevolent crime of the most exceptional severity.The applicant has regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture. The entirety of its case hinges on a deliberately curated, decontextualized, and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilitiesWe live at a time when words are cheap. In an age of social media and identity politics, the temptation to reach for the most outrageous term, to vilify and demonize, has become, for many, irresistible. But if there is a place where words should still matter, where truth should still matter, it is surely a court of law.The applicant has regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture. The entirety of its case hinges on a deliberately curated, decontextualized, and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilities.South Africa purports to come to this court in the lofty position of a guardian of the interests of humanity. But in delegitimizing Israel’s 75-year existence in its opening presentation yesterday, that broad commitment to humanity rang hollow.And in its sweeping counterfactual description of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it seemed to erase both Jewish history and any Palestinian agency or responsibility. Indeed, the delegitimization of Israel since its very establishment in 1948 in the applicant’s submissions sounded barely distinguishable from Hamas’s own rejectionist rhetoric.It is unsurprising, therefore, that in the applicant’s telling, both Hamas’s responsibility for the situation in Gaza and the very humanity of its Israeli victims are removed from view.The attempt to weaponize the term “genocide” against Israel in the present context does more than tell the court a grossly distorted story, and it does more than empty the word of its unique force and special meaning. It subverts the object and purpose of the convention itself, with ramifications for all states seeking to defend themselves against those who demonstrate total disdain for life and for the law.

**Madam President, members of the court, on Saturday, October 7, a Jewish religious holiday, thousands of Hamas and other militants breached Israeli sovereign territory by sea, land, and air, invading over 20 Israeli communities, bases, and the site of a music festival.What proceeded under the cover of thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel was the wholesale massacre, mutilation, rape, and abduction of as many citizens as the terrorists could find before Israel’s forces repelled them.Openly displaying elation, they tortured children in front of parents, and parents in front of children, burned people, including infants, alive, and systematically raped and mutilated scores of women, men, and children. All told, some 1,200 people were butchered that day, more than 5,500 maimed, and some 240 hostages abducted, including infants, entire families, persons with disabilities, and Holocaust survivors, some of whom have since been executed, many of whom have been tortured, sexually abused, and starved in captivity. Representatives of the hostages’ families are in this courtroom today, and we acknowledge their presence and their boundless suffering.We know of the brutality of October 7 not only from the harrowing testimonies of the survivors, the unmistakable proof of carnage and sadism left behind, and the forensic evidence taken at the scene. We know it because the assailants proudly filmed and broadcast their barbarism.The events of that day are all but ignored in the applicant’s submissions, but we are compelled to share with the court some fraction of its horror, the largest calculated mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.We do so not because these acts, however sadistic and systematic, release Israel of its obligations to uphold the law as it defends its citizens and territory. That is unquestionable. We do so because it is impossible to understand the armed conflict in Gaza without appreciating the nature of the threat that Israel is facing and the brutality and lawlessness of the armed force confronting it.In the volume of materials submitted to members of the court, access has been provided to a portion of the raw footage for separate screening. But I am obliged to put before the court today some small fragment of the scenes of unfathomable cruelty that took place in hundreds of locations on that horrible day.Jonny Siman Tov, a wheat farmer, and his wife, Tamar, an activist for women’s rights, lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz. When the rocket fire started, they hid in the safe room with their four-year-old son, Omer, and their six-year-old twins, Arbel and Shahar. During their rampage, Hamas militants set fire to their house. Jonny texted his sister Renee: “They’re here. They’re burning us. We’re suffocating.” The whole family was burned alive, to ashes, making DNA identification especially difficult.A survivor of the Nova music festival massacre testified to police to witnessing a Hamas militant brutally raping a young woman, as another militant cut off her breast and toyed with it. A second militant then raped her again, shooting her in the head while still inside her.In one video recorded by a home surveillance system, a Hamas militant throws a grenade into a safe room where a father and his two sons have rushed to hide. The father is killed. The two sons are injured and bleeding as a militant pulls them into the living room. One child can be heard screaming to his brother, “Why am I alive? I can’t see anything. They’re going to kill us.” The militant casually opens the fridge, takes out a bottle and drinks.And then there is this recording from Kibbutz Mefalsim. (Becker plays recording in Arabic with English subtitles to the court.) “Dad, I am talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her and her husband. I killed ten people with my own hands! Dad, ten with my own hands! Dad, open WhatsApp and see how I killed. Dad, open the phone. Dad, I’m calling you on WhatsApp. Open the phone, go. Ten. Ten with my own hands. Their blood is on their hands. Put mom on.”“Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!”Listen to a phone call of a Hamas terrorist calling home, bragging about how many people he massacred.The whole world needs to hear this. pic.twitter.com/Xv0ykyxvrF— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 24, 2023-As stated, none of these atrocities absolve Israel of its obligations under the law. But they do enable the court to appreciate three core aspects of the present proceedings which the applicant has obscured from view.First, that if there have been acts that may be characterized as genocidal, then they have been perpetrated against Israel. If there is a concern about the obligations of states under the Genocide Convention, then it is in relation to their responsibilities to act against Hamas’s proudly declared agenda of annihilation, which is not a secret and is not in doubt.The annihilationist language of Hamas’s charter is repeated regularly by its leaders, with the goal, in the words of one member of Hamas’s political bureau, of the cleansing of Palestine of the filth of the Jews.It is expressed no less chillingly, in the words of senior Hamas member Ghazi Hamad, to Lebanese television on October 24, 2023, who refers to the October 7 attacks, what Hamas calls the Al-Aqsa Flood, as follows: “We must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation and must be finished. We’re not ashamed to say this with full force. We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa flood is just the first time. There’ll be a second, a third, a fourth.”In the continuation of this interview, Hamad is asked, does that mean the annihilation of Israel? Yes, of course, he says, the existence of Israel is illogical. And then he says: “Nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October the 7th, October the 10th, October the millionth, everything we do is justified.”Given that on October the 7th, before any military response by Israel, South Africa issued an official statement blaming Israel for “the recent conflagration,” essentially blaming Israel for the murder of its own citizens, one wonders whether the applicant agrees.On October the 7th, before any military response by Israel, South Africa issued an official statement blaming Israel for “the recent conflagration”Second, it is in response to the slaughter of October 7, which Hamas openly vows to repeat, and to the ongoing attacks against it from Gaza, that Israel has the inherent right to take all legitimate measures to defend its citizens and secure the release of the hostages. This right is also not in doubt. It has been acknowledged by states across the world.Astonishingly, the court has been requested to indicate a provisional measure calling on Israel to suspend its military operations. But this amounts to an attempt to deny Israel its ability to meet its obligations to the defense of its citizens, to the hostages, and to over 110,000 internally displaced Israelis unable to safely return to their homes. The applicant in its submissions to the court makes almost no mention of the ongoing humanitarian suffering of Israeli citizens at the hands of Hamas, and treats the hostages still held in captivity as barely an afterthought.But is there a reason these people on your screen are unworthy of protection? (Becker shows the court photographs of hostages.)-Hamas is not a party to these proceedings. The applicant, by its request, seeks to thwart Israel’s inherent right to defend itself, to let Hamas not just get away with its murder, literally, but render Israel defenseless as Hamas continues to commit it. Yesterday, counsel for the applicant made the astonishing claim that Israel was denied this right and, as a matter of fact, should not be able to protect itself from Hamas’s attacks.But allow me to draw attention to these words written by Professor Vaughan Lowe. “The source of the attack, whether a state or nonstate actor, is irrelevant to the existence of the right to defense. Force may be used to avert a threat, because no one and no state is obliged by law, passively, to suffer the delivery of an attack.” Israel agrees with these words, as, I suspect, would any sovereign state.If the claim of the applicant now is that in the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel must be denied the ability to defend its citizens, then the absurd upshot of South Africa’s argument is this: Under the guise of the allegation against Israel of genocide, this court is asked to call for an end to operations against the ongoing attacks of an organization that pursues an actual genocidal agenda. An organization that has violated every past ceasefire and used it to rearm and plan new atrocities. An organization that declares its unequivocal resolve to advance its genocidal plans.That is an unconscionable request, and it is respectfully submitted that it cannot stand.The applicant, by its request, seeks to thwart Israel’s inherent right to defend itself, to let Hamas not just get away with its murder, literally, but render Israel defenseless as Hamas continues to commit itThird, the court is informed of the events of October 7, because if there are any provisional measures that should appropriately be indicated here, they are, indeed, with respect to South Africa.It is a matter of public record that South Africa enjoys close relations with Hamas. Despite its formal recognition as a terrorist organization by numerous states across the world, these relations have continued unabated even after the October 7 atrocities. South Africa has long hosted and celebrated its ties with Hamas figures, including a senior Hamas delegation that incredibly, visited the country for a “solidarity gathering” just weeks after the massacre.In justifying instituting proceedings, South Africa makes much of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. It seems fitting, then, that it be instructed to comply with those obligations itself, to end its own language of delegitimization of Israel’s existence, end its support for Hamas, and use its influence with this organization so that Hamas permanently ends its campaign of genocidal terror and releases the hostages.Chief of #Hamas Politburo #KhalidMishal addresses media following bilateral meeting with #ANC leadership #HamasInSA pic.twitter.com/lQYcZE1XBF African National Congress (@MYANC) October 19, 2015

**Madam President, members of the court, the hostilities between Israel and Hamas have exacted a terrible toll on both Israelis and Palestinians. But any genuine effort to understand the cause of this toll must take account of the horrendous reality created by Hamas within the Gaza Strip.When Israel withdrew all its soldiers and civilians from Gaza in 2005, it left a coastal area with the potential to become a political and economic success story. Hamas’s violent takeover in 2007 changed all that.Over the past 16 years of its rule, Hamas has smuggled countless weapons into Gaza and has diverted billions in international aid, not to build schools, hospitals, or shelters to protect its population from the dangers of the attacks it launched against Israel over many years, but rather to turn massive swathes of civilian infrastructure into perhaps the most sophisticated terrorist stronghold in the history of urban warfare.Remarkably, counsel for the applicant described the suffering in Gaza as unparalleled and unprecedented, as if they are unaware of the utter devastation wrought in wars that have raged just in recent years around the world. Sadly, the civilian suffering in warfare is not unique to Gaza. What is actually unparalleled and unprecedented is the degree to which Hamas has entrenched itself within the civilian population and made Palestinian civilian suffering an integral part of its strategy.Hamas has systematically and unlawfully embedded its military operations, militants, and assets throughout Gaza, within and beneath densely populated civilian areas. It has built an extensive warren of underground tunnels for its leaders and fighters several hundred miles in length throughout the strip, with thousands of access points and terrorist hubs located in homes, mosques, UN facilities, schools, and, perhaps most shockingly, hospitals.This is not an occasional tactic. It is an integrated, preplanned, extensive, and abhorrent method of warfare — purposely and methodically murdering civilians, firing rockets indiscriminately, systematically using civilians’ sensitive sites and civilian objects as shields, stealing and hoarding humanitarian supplies, allowing those under its control to suffer so that can fuel its fight and terrorist campaign.The appalling suffering of civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, is first and foremost the result of this despicable strategy, the horrible cost of Hamas not only failing to protect its civilians, but actively sacrificing them for its own propaganda and military benefit.And if Hamas abandons this strategy, releases the hostages, lays down its arms, the hostilities and suffering would end.

**Madam President, members of the court, there are many distortions in the applicant’s submission to the court, but, as shall be demonstrated by counsel, there is one that overshadows them all.In the applicant’s telling, it is almost as if there is no intensive armed conflict taking place between two parties at all, no grave threat to Israel and its citizens, only an Israeli assault on Gaza. The court is told of widespread damage to buildings, but it is not told, for example, how many thousands of those buildings were destroyed because they were booby-trapped by Hamas. How many became legitimate targets because of the strategy of using civilian objects and protected sites for military purposes. How many buildings were struck by over 2,000 indiscriminate terrorist rockets that misfired and landed in Gaza itself.The court is told of over 23,000 casualties — as the applicant repeats, as many have, unverified statistics provided by Hamas itself, hardly a reliable source. Every civilian casualty in this conflict is a human tragedy that demands our compassion. But the court is not told how many thousands of casualties are in fact militants, how many were killed by Hamas fire, how many were civilians taking direct part in hostilities, and just how many are the result of legitimate and proportionate use of force against military targets, even if tragic.And the court is also told of the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. But it is not told of Hamas’s practice of stealing and hoarding aid. It is not told of the extensive Israeli efforts to mitigate civilian harm, of the humanitarian initiative that’s being undertaken to enable the flow of supplies and provide medical attention to the wounded.The applicant purports to describe the reality in Gaza, but it is as if Hamas and its total contempt for civilian life just do not exist as a direct cause of that reality.Hamas is widely estimated to have over 30,000 fighters and is known to bring minors no older than 15 or 16 into its ranks. They are coming for us. But in South Africa’s telling, they have all but disappeared. There are no explosives in mosques and schools and children’s bedrooms, no ambulances used to transport fighters, no tunnels and terrorist hubs under sensitive sites. No fighters dressed as civilians, no commandeering of aid trucks, no firing from civilian homes, UN facilities, and even safe zones. There is only Israel acting in Gaza.The applicant is essentially asking the court to substitute the lens of armed conflict between the state and a lawless terrorist organization with the lens of a so-called genocide of a state against a civilian population. But it is not offering the court a lens. It is offering it a blindfold.

**Madam President, members of the court, the nightmarish environment created by Hamas has been concealed by the applicant, but it is the environment in which Israel is compelled to operate.Israel is committed, as it must be, to comply with the law, but it does so in the face of Hamas’s utter contempt for the law. It is committed, as it must be, to demonstrate humanity. But it does so in the face of Hamas’s utter inhumanity.As will be presented by counsel, these commitments are a matter of express government policy, military directives and procedures. They are also an expression of Israel’s core values and, as shall also be shown, they are matched by genuine measures on the ground to mitigate civilian harm under the unprecedented and excruciating conditions of warfare created by Hamas.The key component of genocide — the intention to destroy a people, in whole or in part — is totally lacking. What Israel seeks by operating in Gaza is not to destroy a people, but to protect a people — its people, who are under attack on multiple fronts — and to do so in accordance with the law, even as it faces a heartless enemy determined to use that very commitment against itIt is plainly inconceivable, under the terms set by this very court, that a state conducting itself in this way, in these circumstances, may be said to be engaged in genocide. Not even prima facie.The key component of genocide — the intention to destroy a people, in whole or in part — is totally lacking. What Israel seeks by operating in Gaza is not to destroy a people, but to protect a people — its people, who are under attack on multiple fronts — and to do so in accordance with the law, even as it faces a heartless enemy determined to use that very commitment against it.As will be detailed by counsel, Israel’s lawful aims in Gaza have been clearly and repeatedly articulated by its prime minister, its defense minister, and all members of the war cabinet. As the prime minister reiterated yet again this week, Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the civilian population. Israel aims to ensure that Gaza can never again be used as a launch pad for terrorism.As the prime minister reaffirms, Israel seeks neither to permanently occupy Gaza nor to displace its civilian population. It wants to create a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike, where both can live in peace, thrive and prosper, and where the Palestinian people have all the power to govern themselves, but not the capacity to threaten Israel.If there is a threat to that vision, if there is a humanitarian threat to the Palestinian civilians of Gaza, it stems primarily from the fact that they have lived under the control of a genocidal terrorist organization that has total disregard for their life and well-being. That organization, Hamas, and its sponsors, seek to deny Israel, Palestinians and Arab states across the region the ability to advance a common future of peace, coexistence, security and prosperity. Israel is in a war of defense against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people, to ensure that they do not succeed.Madam President, members of the court, the Genocide Convention was a solemn promise made to the Jewish people and to all peoples of Never Again. The applicant, in effect, invites the court to betray that promiseIn these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide.The applicant has regretfully engaged in a transparent attempt to abuse the convention’s compulsory jurisdiction mechanism and in particular, the provisional measures phase of proceedings, to bring, under the purview of the court matters over which, in truth, it lacks jurisdiction.

**Madam President, members of the court, the Genocide Convention was a solemn promise made to the Jewish people and to all peoples of Never Again. The applicant, in effect, invites the court to betray that promise.If the term “genocide” can be so diminished in the way that it advocates, if provisional measures can be triggered in the way that it suggests, the convention becomes an aggressor’s charter. It will reward, indeed encourage, the terrorists who hide behind civilians, at the expense of the states seeking to defend against them.To maintain the integrity of the Genocide Convention, to maintain its promise and the court’s own role as its guardian, it is respectfully submitted that the application and request should be dismissed for what they are: a libel, designed to deny Israel the right to defend itself, according to the law, from the unprecedented terrorist onslaught it continues to face, and to free the 136 hostages Hamas still holds.I thank you for your kind attention.