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addressed soldiers involved in hostilities in the Gaza Strip, I cannot plausibly exclude that such statements contribute to a potential failure by Israel to prevent and punish acts of public and direct incitement to genocide. Indeed, South Africa has provided evidence, not contradicted by Israel, that inflammatory parts of relevant statements have been echoed in a threatening way by members of the Israeli armed forces[1]. This confirms that such statements may contribute to a “serious risk” that acts of genocide other than direct and public incitement may be committed, giving rise to Israel’s obligation to prevent genocide[2].

16. Statements by Israel and by United Nations agencies regarding the access of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to adequate food, water and other forms of humanitarian assistance differ significantly[3]. United Nations agencies claim that there is a desperate lack of food and other goods necessary for the survival of the population[4]. Their statements raise the question whether the Israeli authorities are unjustifiably restricting the delivery of food and other necessary goods to the entire civilian population in the Gaza Strip, or at least to substantial parts of the population[5]. Under the circumstances and at the provisional measures stage, I think that weight must be given to the respective assessments of United Nations agencies regarding the circumstances of the existentially threatening situation of the group of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. I have therefore also voted in favour of measure (4).

III.

17. South Africa has, in my view, shown that some, but not all, of the rights which it has alleged are plausible at the present preliminary stage of the proceedings (see paragraph 54 of the Order). I view the measures indicated by the Court today as responding to certain plausible risks for the rights of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip deriving from the Genocide Convention, and as reminding Israel of its obligations under that Convention.

(Signed) Georg Nolte.

  1. ↑ CR 2024/1, p. 36, para. 21 (Ngcukaitobi).
  2. ↑ See Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2007 (I), pp. 221-222, para. 431.
  3. ↑ CR 2024/2, p. 32, para. 41 (Shaw); pp. 46-49, paras. 51-77 (Raguan); pp. 50-52, paras. 9-13 (Sender); Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, Mr Martin Griffiths’ briefing to the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (12 January 2024); UN news, ‘Humanitarian aid’ (11 January 2024), available at: https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1145422.
  4. ↑ Letter from the Secretary-General to the President of Security Council invoking Article 99 of the United Nations Charter (6 December 2023), available at: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_letter_of_6_december_gaza.pdf.
  5. ↑ Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, Mr Martin Griffiths’ briefing to the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (12 January 2024); UN news, ‘Humanitarian aid’ (11 January 2024), available at: https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1145422.
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