ANKARA

The South African legal team on Thursday used Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's incitement to genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza in the first hearing session before the International Court of Justice in its lawsuit against Israel.

South Africa's lawyer and legal activist Tembeka Ngcukaitobi reminded the world court that Netanyahu, on Oct. 28, used the biblical Amalek narrative while inciting his soldiers to attack Gaza, a violent theory that refers to entirely crushing the population of Gaza, including its women and children.

The South African lawyer also said that Netanyahu repeated the Amalek narrative in another letter to the Israeli soldiers on Nov. 3.

"Let the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu's] words speak for themselves," Ngcukaitobi said, then screened a video for Netanyahu while using the Amalek narrative in a televised speech.

He also brought other words of incitement to genocide against Palestinians, including Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's speech that Israel is "fighting against human animals" in Gaza and that he imposed a "complete siege" with no food, electricity, and water entering the city.

He also reminded the ICJ that an Israeli parliament member called for the "erasure of the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth."
During the course of the Israeli war on Gaza, Netanyahu quoted scriptures in his speeches at least three times to justify the onslaught on Gaza.

The first hearing session of South Africa's lawsuit before ICJ against Israel over committing the crime of genocide has convened on Thursday, while another hearing session is expected to take place on Friday.

Israel has pounded the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed around 1,200 people.

At least 23,357 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 59,410 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced, while all of the population is food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and ⁠less than half of the aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.