South Africa urgent filing Monday with the International Court of Justice to stop an impending Israeli attack on Hamas in Rafah complains about an “assault” on the evening of February 11 without noting that the successful operation rescued Israeli hostages.
As Breitbart News noted on Tuesday, South Africa’s application with the International Court of Justice followed a slew of world leaders, starting with President Joe Biden, who urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go into the city of Rafah.
Israel has noted that Rafah, in southern Gaza, on the Egyptian border, is the last holdout of Hamas leaders, including the last four terrorist battalions. It is also the main point for smuggling weapons into and out of the Gaza Strip. It is the key to Israeli victory in the war against Hamas, which launched the war with its brutal terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, murdering 1,200 people.
Last week, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to draw up an attack plan that included the evacuation of Palestinian civilians.
On Sunday evening, Israel carried out a daring raid into Rafah that rescued two Israeli hostages and returned them safely to Israel. The raid involved airstrikes on Hamas terrorists attempting to stop the rescue, but no major incursion of Israeli forces.
The South African filing includes the following paragraph:
Despite strong denunciation by the international community, including by some of Israel’s closest allies, the Israeli Prime Minister reiterated in an interview broadcast on Sunday 11 February 2024 that: “[v]ictory is within reach. We’re going to do it. We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion, but we’re going to do it”. Thereafter, on Sunday evening, Rafah was subjected to an intense, unprecedented Israeli military assault, with an ongoing threat of yet further intensification of the assault — including by way of an Israeli ground invasion.
The South African complaint does not mention the hostages at all, or call for their release, but rather laments that Israel launched an “assault” that freed two civilians who were being held in stark violation of international law.
Responding to a question from Breitbart News at a press briefing on Wednesday, Ilana Stein, Spokesperson at The National Public Diplomacy Directorate, said: “I find it ironic that South Africa decides to be [Hamas’s] advocate … We abide by international law … we do it because of our own moral compass, while Hamas is a terror organization that takes pride in butchering people and posting it on Facebook and other social media.”
She said South Africa should consider the side it had chosen, and how South Africa would be seen by history.
Stein added that Israel wanted the war — which it had not chosen — to stop as soon as possible, with the defeat of the terrorists.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
