South Africa Will Imprison Residents Joining Israel's Military Against Gaza

Badminton UNICEF/Eyad alBaba

JAKARTA - South African citizens who join or fight on the Israeli military will be detained once they return home, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said, Israeli media reported.

The Pandor statement was delivered following the first anniversary of the African Ministry of Foreign Affairs last December which stated that alleged violations of international law in Israeli military aggression in the Gaza Strip made the perpetrators eligible for prosecution in South Africa.

"I have issued a statement warning to South Africans fighting on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). We are ready, when you return home, we will detain you," Pandor said at a solidarity conference for Palestine in Pretoria, reported by The Times of Israel newspaper Antara from Anadolu, Thursday, March 14.

On December 29, 2023, South Africa sued Israel at the International Court (ICJ) on charges of violations of the UN Genocide Convention which was passed in 1948.

South Africa asked the ICJ to issue an initial verdict, given the urgency of the situation in the Gaza Strip. The hearing on South Africa's lawsuit took place on January 11--12.

In its initial ruling, the International Court ordered Israel to act with all efforts to avoid the things written in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, prevent and punish those calling for genocide, and eliminate bad living conditions by providing basic services and humanitarian assistance.

The ICJ also ordered Israel to prevent the destruction of evidence of violations of the Genocide Convention against the Palestinian people and submit reports explaining all actions taken to comply with the ruling.

Israel's military aggression to the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023 have killed more than 31,000 Palestinians and injured more than 73,000 others.

The United Nations said the Israeli action caused 85 percent of Gaza's population to be expelled from their homes, 60 percent of Gaza's infrastructure was damaged and destroyed, and caused severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.