Amid intensified war in Gaza, the International Court of Justice will hold hearings on Thursday and Friday in a case brought by South Africa claiming Israel’s war against Hamas.

Gaza: Israel will on Thursday face charges at the top UN court against accusations of genocide in Gaza, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rebuffed for the first time calls by some right-wing ministers to permanently occupy the enclave.

Amid intensified war in Gaza, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, also known as the World Court, will hold hearings on Thursday and Friday in a case brought by South Africa in December claiming Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza violates the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Speaking to news agency Reuters, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel, as Pretoria gives political and legal cover to the Hamas Rapist Regime.

On Thursday, the hearings at the world court will deal exclusively with South Africa’s request for emergency measures ordering Israel to suspend its military actions in Gaza while the court hears the merits of the case – a process which could take years. Colombia and Brazil expressed their support of South Africa late Wednesday.

The development comes after Israel initiated its offensive after Hamas fighters carried out an October 7 cross-border rampage in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 240 abducted.

From the time of the war, Israeli forces have laid much of Gaza to waste, and nearly all its 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes at least once, causing a humanitarian catastrophe. More than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed.

On January 10, the Israeli military struck around 150 terror targets in Gaza over the past day, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday morning.

In the area of Maghazi in central Gaza, Israeli ground troops operated and directed aircraft to strike several terrorists.

Furthermore, the ground troops uncovered more than 15 underground tunnel shafts in the area. During targeted raids on Hamas sites. soldiers seized rocket launchers, missiles, UAVs, and explosive devices. Israeli forces also destroyed a machine used for manufacturing rockets.

During operational activity in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, IDF ground forces directed an air strike that eliminated 10 terrorists. In battles in the area over the last day, dozens of terrorist operatives were killed by IDF troops.

Elsewhere in Khan Yunis, soldiers identified a terrorist planting an explosive device in the vicinity of a route used for the movement of troops. In the ground forces directed an air strike which eliminated the terrorist.

Khan Yunis is Gaza’s second largest city and regarded as a personal stronghold of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whose family lives there.

At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The number of men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 129. Other people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains.

(With Inputs from Reuters, ANI)