Cuba files declaration to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ

In a statement released on Monday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced that Cuba had filed a declaration of intervention in the proceedings against Israel for Genocide Convention violations under Article 63 of the Statute of The Hague-based court.

“Cuba, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, filed in the Registry of the Court a declaration of intervention in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip,” it said.

South Africa lodged the complaint with the ICJ in December of 2023, saying the Israeli regime's actions in Gaza are “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”.

Since then, several countries, including Nicaragua, Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Palestine, Spain, Turkey, Bolivia, the Maldives, Chile, and Ireland have joined the case.

In January 2024, the ICJ handed down a ruling, ordering Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza, but stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Israel waged its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 46,584 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured109,731 others, in the besieged territory.

In addition to targeting Gaza's infrastructure, Israel has been deliberately blocking the flow of food, medicines and basic supplies into the besieged territory and using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.