The United States will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, the Hague-based U.N. court, according to a filing obtained by The Associated Press. The U.S. argues that South Africa’s accusations are false and says a ruling against Israel could undermine the international-law framework that governs genocide allegations.
The case asks the court to determine whether Israel’s military operation in Gaza to crush Hamas amounts to genocide under a treaty adopted in the aftermath of World War II. Israel, which was founded after the Holocaust, has denied the allegations, setting up a dispute in which the legal meaning of evidence and intent is central to what the judges can ultimately conclude.
In its intervention filing, the U.S. describes South Africa’s accusations as part of what it calls a wider effort aimed at Israel and Jewish people. The filing says the allegations are part of a “broader campaign” against Israel and the Jewish people “to justify or encourage terrorism against them.”
The U.S. also sought to persuade the court to maintain the legal threshold for proving genocide. The filing stresses that a genocide finding requires the presence of “specific intent” to commit the crime and warns the court against “lowering the standard.” The filing adds that “Civilian casualties, even widespread civilian casualties, are not necessarily probative of genocidal intent, particularly when they occur in the context of an armed conflict involving urban combat.”
Reed Rubenstein, a legal adviser at the State Department who represents the United States in the case, told the AP that a finding against Israel would be a “radical repudiation” of the court’s precedent. Rubenstein said such a decision would “feed the perception that the court is simply just one more tool in the ongoing pro-Hamas lawfare campaign” against Israel.
The ICJ can consider intervention submissions from parties to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The U.S. intervention is the first in this case described in the AP report; in addition, more than a dozen other countries have filed interventions, including Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland, with the filing saying many of them take a different view than the United States.
Since South Africa brought the case in 2023, the ICJ has issued a series of orders involving Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Those orders have included telling Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide. The court has also said Israel must allow the U.N. aid agency in Gaza, known as UNRWA, to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian territory.
Separate from the ICJ case, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister in 2024 connected to the Gaza conflict. The ICC said it had reason to believe the two men used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians. The Trump administration responded to the ICC warrants by sanctioning ICC officials, including nine judges and top prosecutors.
The AP report also said that a U.S.-brokered ceasefire began last year and that the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided since then, though regular Israeli fire continues. It said the shaky agreement has increased humanitarian aid and other supplies entering the enclave, while restrictions have been reimposed during U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran.
In the ICJ proceedings, the U.S. filing positions the dispute around what it calls the evidence needed to show genocidal intent under the Genocide Convention—an intent requirement it argues the court should not dilute as it weighs South Africa’s claims.