The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued three legally binding Provisional Measures Orders against Israel that seek to protect the Palestinian people’s rights under the Genocide Convention.
The ICJ determined that there is a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from genocide.
On 25 August 2026, South Africa submitted a substantial dossier of information to the ICJ, in order to assist the Committee of Judges responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Provisional Measures and recommending potential options for the Court. The dossier was submitted pursuant to Article 11 of the ICJ’s rules concerning Internal Judicial Practice, which provides that such a committee “shall examine information supplied by the parties in relation of provisional measures”. South Africa trusts in the Court’s continued and diligent exercise of its functions.
As of August 2026, at least 73 407 Palestinians have been killed and 174 335 injured in Gaza since 7 October 2023: over 10% of the Palestinian population in Gaza. A total of 46 000 of the surviving Palestinians in Gaza, including children, are estimated to live with severe conflict-related injuries, including amputations, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.
Since the announcement of the so-called ‘ceasefire’, on average, one Palestinian child has been killed every day by the Israeli military. Palestinian miscarriage rates in Gaza have increased more than three-fold in 2026. Surviving Palestinians in Gaza are further traumatised, herded into an ever-shrinking sliver of territory and subjected to unbearable conditions of life. They are deprived of water, adequate healthcare and medicine, and other essential resources for survival.
The Court’s orders are binding on Israel, and the international community also has an obligation to protect the Palestinian people from genocide, including to take all necessary action to prevent and punish genocide.
Regrettably, Israel has not complied with the Orders. South Africa continues to pursue all avenues available to it to seek Israel’s full and immediate compliance with the Court’s Orders.
South Africa’s continuing efforts at the Court follow its earlier submissions of Letters enclosing Public Dossiers of evidence to the United Nations Security Council on 29 May 2024, 27 February 2025 and 8 September 2025, urging all States to urgently act so as to prevent and punish genocide and to ensure Israel’s compliance with the Court’s Provisional Measures Orders. Similarly, Letters enclosing Dossiers of evidence on starvation were submitted by South Africa to the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Economic and Social Counsel in October 2025, requesting their urgent action under Article VIII of the Genocide Convention.
For almost three years, Israel has bombarded Gaza, killing and maiming tens of thousands of children, men and women. The violence has displaced Palestinians internally and is depriving them of basic services. Israel has arbitrarily detained and deported Palestinians to its prisons and detention centres, where they have subsequently been tortured, subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, and to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
To prevent any record of its crimes, Israel has killed local journalists, barred foreign journalists and prevented UN-mandated investigative bodies from entering Gaza.
Israel’s failure to comply with the Provisional Measures Ordered by the Court undermines their protective function and entails further destruction of the Palestinian group.The Provisional Measures were not only ordered to protect the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, they also safeguard the administration of justice and the legitimacy of the ICJ itself, by ensuring that the rights the Court is called upon to vindicate are not destroyed before it renders its final decision.
South Africa’s submission reaffirms its commitment to upholding and defending international law and multilateral institutions, including the UN’s principal judicial organ.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION
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