Israel reveals secret orders in fightback against genocide charges

Palestinians amid the rubble of buildings that were destroyed in an aerial bombardment in December in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip – MAHMUD HAMS/AFP

Israel has declassified dozens of secret orders issued by government and military officials in a bid to rebut genocide charges being weighed up by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The move came ahead of a crucial hearing on Friday which might result in Israel being ordered to cease its war in Gaza.

Israeli representatives have submitted more than 30 documents to the court intended to disprove South Africa’s claim that it was deliberately massacring Palestinian civilians in the territory.

The documents, reviewed by The New York Times, reportedly demonstrate consistent Israeli efforts to minimise deaths in the territory during months of war with Hamas following the terror group’s Oct 7 attack.

Pursued only a legal war

More than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The UN and other aid groups have criticised the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for indiscriminately targeting densely populated areas in the sealed-off territory.

But the 400-page-long defence Israel has put to the ICJ includes what it believes is evidence that officials have at no point in the conflict expressed genocidal intentions and have pursued only a legal war with Hamas.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, which South Africa has accused Israel of violating, defines genocide as killings carried out with an “intent to destroy” a particular ethnic or national group.

As a result, the two sides’ submissions to the ICJ have focused extensively on what Israeli officials and troops have said, as well as their actions.

One declassified document cited by The New York Times revealed that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had stressed to cabinet colleagues in mid-November that there was a “need to significantly increase the humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip”.

Another summary of cabinet discussions read: “It is recommended to respond favourably to the request of the USA to enable the entry of fuel.”

Documents omitted key orders

The cited documents, however, appeared to be highly curated and omit key orders issued by the government at the outset of the war, including when Israel decided to cut off water and electricity to the territory and blocked aid from reaching it.

Prof Malcolm Shaw, a British international law expert representing Israel at the ICJ, told the court earlier this month that it had submitted “numerous excerpts from internal cabinet decisions that attest to Israel’s true intent throughout this war”.

He cited instructions from Mr Netanyahu at a ministerial committee at the end of October that “we must prevent a humanitarian disaster”.

Minutes of the meeting state that Mr Netanyahu told officials that they must ensure required supplies of water, food and medicines were sent to Gaza.

Aid groups have repeatedly accused Israel of deliberately blocking aid from reaching the enclave, with the UN’s World Food Programme warning on Tuesday that the territory was “slipping” into a catastrophe with a “looming threat of hunger”.

South Africa’s attempt to prove that the devastating loss of civilian life in Gaza has been driven by genocidal intent has leaned heavily on dozens of comments made by Israeli politicians and soldiers in recent months recommending that the IDF take the toughest line possible in the territory.

‘Human animals’

Some of the remarks, made by individuals from across the political spectrum, referred to Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” while others urged the Israeli government to “flatten” the territory or drop a nuclear bomb on it.

But Prof Shaw has pushed back against using such comments as proof of genocidal intent, arguing in court that they were made by individuals “completely outside the policy and decision-making processes in the war” and were “not in conformity with government policy”.

Mr Netanyahu was expected to meet with Israel’s top legal officials on Thursday to map out responses to the ICJ’s anticipated ruling on Friday on South Africa’s request for emergency measures over the war in Gaza.

Eylon Levy, a government spokesman, said Israel expected the ICJ to throw out the “spurious and specious charges” brought by South African officials.

The New York Times report came as William Burns, the CIA director, was said to be finalising plans to meet with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials in the coming days for talks on a potential Gaza hostage deal.

More than 100 of the 253 hostages that were seized by Hamas on Oct 7 were freed during a week-long November truce, but none has left alive since.

Hamas has said any new deal for the release of more captives must hinge on Israel ending its offensive and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.

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