President Cyril Ramaphosa says progress and healing hinge on the case against Israel being heard.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Gaza ceasefire will not affect his country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Ramaphosa made the statement on Tuesday in Cape Town in parliament, stressing that South Africa’s determination to pursue its 2023 case despite the agreement on the widely lauded US-backed deal aimed at ending Israel’s war on the besieged territory.
“The peace deal that has been struck, which we welcome, will have no bearing on the case that is before the International Court of Justice,” Ramaphosa told parliament.
“The case is proceeding, and it now has to go to the stage where Israel has to respond to our pleadings that have been filed in the court, and they have to do so by January of next year,” he added.
South Africa filed the case in December 2023, accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza.
South Africa handed in a 500-page detailed submission in October 2024, with Israel’s counter-arguments due by January 12, 2026. Oral hearings are anticipated in 2027, with a final judgement expected in late 2027 or early 2028.
The ICJ has issued three provisional measures, ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, though Israel has largely failed to comply.
More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Ramaphosa emphasised that real healing requires the case being properly heard.
“We cannot go forward without the healing that needs to take place, which will also result from the case that has been launched being properly heard,” he said.
Responding to a news report about the announcement, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, wrote on X: “Peace without justice, respect for human rights and dignity, without reparations and guarantees of non reeptition [sic], is not sustainable.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, echoed similar sentiments, telling Spanish radio that the ceasefire should not mean impunity for Israel.
“There cannot be impunity”, Sanchez said, adding that “the main actors of the genocide will have to answer to justice”.
Several rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of committing genocidal acts in Gaza. A UN commission of inquiry found in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide.
Israel has strongly rejected allegations that it has carried out a genocide in Gaza.
Several countries have joined, or declared an intention to do so, in the ICJ case to support South Africa, including Spain, Ireland, Turkiye and Colombia, whose president, Gustavo Petro, wrote that governments risk becoming “complicit in the atrocities” if they fail to act.
South Africa co-chairs The Hague Group, a coalition formed in January 2025, focused on holding Israel accountable through legal, diplomatic and economic measures beyond the ICJ proceedings.
