President Cyril Ramaphosa says progress and therapeutic hinge on the case in opposition to Israel being heard.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Gaza ceasefire won’t have an effect on his nation’s genocide case in opposition to Israel on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ).
Ramaphosa made the assertion on Tuesday in Cape City in parliament, stressing that South Africa’s willpower to pursue its 2023 case regardless of the settlement on the extensively lauded US-backed deal geared toward ending Israel’s struggle on the besieged territory.
“The peace deal that has been struck, which we welcome, may have no bearing on the case that’s earlier than the Worldwide Court docket of Justice,” Ramaphosa advised parliament.
“The case is continuing, and it now has to go to the stage the place Israel has to answer our pleadings which were filed within the courtroom, and so they have to take action by January of subsequent 12 months,” he added.
South Africa filed the case in December 2023, accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza.
South Africa handed in a 500-page detailed submission in October 2024, with Israel’s counter-arguments due by January 12, 2026. Oral hearings are anticipated in 2027, with a remaining judgement anticipated in late 2027 or early 2028.
The ICJ has issued three provisional measures, ordering Israel to stop genocidal acts and permit humanitarian assist into Gaza, although Israel has largely did not comply.
Greater than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, in line with Palestinian well being authorities.
Ramaphosa emphasised that actual therapeutic requires the case being correctly heard.
“We can not go ahead with out the therapeutic that should happen, which may also outcome from the case that has been launched being correctly heard,” he mentioned.
Responding to a information report in regards to the announcement, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations particular rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, wrote on X: “Peace with out justice, respect for human rights and dignity, with out reparations and ensures of non reeptition [sic], shouldn’t be sustainable.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, echoed related sentiments, telling Spanish radio that the ceasefire mustn’t imply impunity for Israel.
“There can’t be impunity”, Sanchez mentioned, including that “the principle actors of the genocide must reply to justice”.
A number of rights teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide and Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of committing genocidal acts in Gaza. A UN commission of inquiry found in September 2025 that Israel had dedicated genocide.
Israel has strongly rejected allegations that it has carried out a genocide in Gaza.
A number of nations have joined, or declared an intention to take action, within the ICJ case to assist South Africa, together with Spain, Eire, Turkiye and Colombia, whose president, Gustavo Petro, wrote that governments threat turning into “complicit within the atrocities” in the event that they fail to behave.
South Africa co-chairs The Hague Group, a coalition fashioned in January 2025, centered on holding Israel accountable by means of authorized, diplomatic and financial measures past the ICJ proceedings.
