Hague: Israel will respond on Friday to accusations brought by South Africa at the UN's top court that its military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign aimed at wiping out the Palestinian population.
South Africa, which filed the lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December, asked judges on Thursday to impose emergency measures ordering Israel to immediately halt the offensive.
It said Israel's aerial and ground offensive - which has laid waste to much of the narrow coastal enclave and killed more than 23,000 people according to Gaza health authorities - aimed to bring about "the destruction of the population" of Gaza.
Israel rejected the accusations of genocide as baseless and said South Africa was acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas, which it views as a terrorist organisation seeking to eliminate the Jewish state. Its military was targeting Hamas militants, not Palestinian civilians, it said.
Israel launched its all-out war in Gaza after a cross-border rampage on Oct. 7 by Hamas militants in which Israeli officials said 1,200 people were killed, mainly civilians, and 240 taken hostage back to Gaza.