Israel accuses South Africa of being ‘legal arm of Hamas’

Israel’s foreign ministry accused South Africa of being “the legal arm” of the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Thursday, after Pretoria accused it of genocide at the U.N.’s top court in The Hague.

“Today we witnessed one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy in history, compounded by a series of false and baseless claims,” said Lior Haiat, spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a press release.

“South Africa, which is functioning as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organization, utterly distorted the reality in Gaza following the October 7 massacre and completely ignored the fact that Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, murdered, executed, massacred, raped and abducted Israeli citizens, simply because they were Israelis, in an attempt to carry out genocide,” he added.

Israel issued the statement as the International Court of Justice opened hearings on a case brought by South Africa against Israel.

“South Africa seeks to allow Hamas to return to commit the war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual crimes they committed repeatedly on October 7, as its leaders have stated,” Haiat said. “Israel will continue to protect its citizens in accordance with international law, while distinguishing between Hamas terrorists and the civilian population.”

Israel’s retaliatory ground assault, airstrikes and siege in the Gaza Strip have so far killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.