In this regard, Bolivia has joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing acts of genocide during its war on Gaza. The Hague-based court says the South American country submitted its application to intervene on Tuesday.

The case, which South Africa had originally filed, claims that the acts Israel has carried out in Gaza amount to violations of the Genocide Convention. Bolivia is joining a growing list of countries in the case, including Colombia, Libya, Spain, Mexico, Palestine, Nicaragua, and Turkey.

The ICJ ruling earlier this year said that Israel must take immediate steps to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, and United Nations investigators must be given unfettered access to the region. But Israel has refused to abide by these orders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying the court’s ruling was “outrageous,” reaffirming Israel’s intent to continue its military campaign.

Amnesty International addressed a scathing attack on Israel, accusing it of not cooperating with the ICJ interim rulings. It stated that Israel had taken no minimal measure required by the court to address its concerns. South Africa has continued returning to the ICJ for additional emergency measures for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Such calls notwithstanding, Israel disregarded the orders made by the ICJ, one of which was to halt its military strikes in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah by May. While decisions reached by the ICJ are technically the law, the court does not have any apparatus to enforce its decisions, thereby making obedience largely dependent on political will as influenced by the pressures of international opinion.

Bolivia had, in November, severed diplomatic relations with Israel and cited its moral obligation to denounce acts of genocide as it intervened. Bolivia presented a report to the ICJ, affirming that Israel’s armed offensive persists unabated and that the latter has disregarded all previous court orders.

The war in Gaza has taken over 42,000 lives, of whom most are civilians, over a year since it broke out, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced. Compared with this, an attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, led to 1,139 Israeli casualties.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, described Gaza’s people as suffering under extreme torture, life in Gaza being the most unspeakable suffering by being forced out of their homes, risking hunger, diseases, and death.

Through this case, international attention continues to be granted, also involving Bolivia, to the humanitarian and legal effects the continued implementation of Israel’s policies has experienced in Gaza, therefore continuing debate on the enforcement of international law.

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