Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker told a packed auditorium at the ornate Palace of Peace in The Hague that the country is fighting a “war it did not start and did not want.”
Yemen has been embroiled in turmoil since 2014, when Iranian-backed Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa and toppled the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed government, triggering a civil war. The conflict spiraled into a wider war in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to beat back the Houthis.
Israel argued before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the order sought by South Africa for it to cease its military operation in Gaza would leave it defenceless against Hamas which is determined to destroy Israel.
Israel on Friday rejected what it called the “grossly distorted” accusation of genocide leveled against it by South Africa, telling the United Nations’ top court the case was an attempt to “pervert the meaning” of the term.