Egypt to Support South Africa’s Case Against Israel for Genocide at International Court of Justice

Egypt has announced it will support South Africa’s case against Israel for genocide at the International Court of Justice in a sign of Cairo’s disappointment with Israel’s military operation in the southern city. Rafah in Gaza, said DPA, cited by BTA.

A statement from Egypt’s foreign ministry said the move “came as a result of the increasing intensity and scale” of Israeli attacks on civilians in Gaza and the “continued use of systematic practices” against Palestinians, including attacks on civilians and destruction of infrastructure.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, but the military campaign in Gaza has fueled anti-Israel sentiment in the world’s most populous Arab country, DPA noted.

This week, Israel took control of the Gaza Strip at the Rafah border with Egypt. As a result of the operation, the delivery of humanitarian aid to the densely populated strip was halted.

Cairo also fears that a major Israeli attack into Rafah, full of refugees from the fighting in Gaza, would bring a large crowd to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

Israel, for its part, believes that Rafah is the last stronghold of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which killed hundreds of civilians in Israel last October.

Earlier, the Egyptian television “Al-Qahera News”, citing a high-ranking source, said that the country refused to coordinate with Israel to bring aid into Gaza through the Rafah checkpoint because “Israel’s unacceptable escalation”, DPA recalls.