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Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday that Turkey has decided to submit its declaration of intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Reuters reported.
Earlier this month Fidan announced the decision to join the case launched by South Africa as Ankara stepped up measures against Israel over its assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 people and was launched after militant group Hamas’ October 7 rampage.
“We condemned civilians being killed on October 7,” he told a press conference with his Austrian counterpart.
“But Israel systematically killing thousands of innocent Palestinians and rendering a whole residential area uninhabitable is a crime against humanity, attempted genocide and the manifestation of genocide,” he added.
A foreign ministry official said Turkey had not yet submitted the formal application to the ICJ.
The ICJ ordered Israel in January to refrain from all acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure that its troops do not commit genocidal acts against Palestinians after South Africa accused Israel of state-directed genocide in Gaza.
In January President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would provide documents for the case to the ICJ, also known as the World Court.
Israel and its Western allies described the accusation as unfounded. A final decision in South Africa’s case before the ICJ in The Hague could take years.
Israel launched a military campaign on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an unprecedented Hamas incursion on October 7 that resulted in an estimated 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages being taken to Gaza.