Turkey has announced it will join South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which accuses Israel of committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan justified their decision, stating, “We condemned the killing of civilians on October 7th, but Israel’s systematic killings of thousands of innocent Palestinians and rendering an entire residential area uninhabitable amounts to crimes against humanity, attempted genocide, and manifest evidence of genocide.”

South Africa has been at the forefront of legal action against Israel at the ICJ this year. As a result, the ICJ has ordered Israel on multiple occasions to stop committing alleged acts of genocide against Arabs and take stronger action to facilitate humanitarian relief in Gaza.

Escalating the legal battle, South Africa submitted another petition to the ICJ last Friday. In it, they requested for the court impose additional provisional measures against Israel, arguing that the court’s existing punitive measures are not having the desired effect. The case is scheduled to proceed later this week, with South Africa set to present its arguments on Thursday, followed by Israel’s counter-arguments on Friday, as per the court’s calendar.

Joining Turkey in supporting South Africa’s “case” against Israel is Egypt, which announced its intention to join on Monday.