Germany announced that it will intervene as a third party before the International Court of Justice in the case brought against Israel by South Africa on charges of committing genocide in Gaza.

Government spokesman Stephen Hebstreit said in a statement that Germany “intends to intervene as a third party in the main hearing,” indicating that Berlin will intervene in the main case against Israel, which may take years for the court to issue a decision on.

Article 63 of the Court's Statute allows States to request clarification on the use of a multilateral agreement. The move allows Germany to present its case to the court that Israel did not violate the Genocide Convention and did not commit or intend to commit genocide.

Since Germany does not claim to be legally affected in the case, it does not need permission from the International Court of Justice to intervene as a third party. As a signatory to the 1948 Genocide Convention, it is entitled to present its arguments on the issue.

According to the Times of Israel website, it does not appear that the German move will affect the court proceedings this week, which are scheduled to be discussed in the hearings in which South Africa requested a temporary injunction to force Israel to implement the ceasefire. A decision on this issue is expected within one month.

The procedure for third-party intervention before the International Court of Justice stipulated in Articles 62 and 63 was not sufficiently exploited earlier, but the situation later changed significantly, as three recent cases before the Court included third-party intervention, the first between Tunisia and Libya, where Malta submitted a request. Intervention; Between Libya and Malta, Italy requested intervention, and recently, El Salvador requested intervention in the issue between Nicaragua and the United States.

Yesterday, Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country had presented evidence - much of it visual - to the court, sufficient to convict Israel of genocide crimes, in the lawsuit that many countries announced their support.

For his part, Hebstreit said: “In light of German history and the crimes against humanity committed in the Holocaust, the German government is particularly committed to the Genocide Convention that was signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust.”

He added that the agreement represents a “central instrument” under international law to prevent another Holocaust, and for this reason, “we stand firmly against political exploitation” of the agreement.

The spokesman expressed the German government's "decisive and explicit rejection of the accusations directed against Israel before the International Court of Justice of committing genocide," considering that "this accusation is baseless."

For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked German Chancellor Olaf Schulz for Berlin's decision, saying: "Your position and Germany's position on the side of the truth moves all citizens of Israel."

Netanyahu added: “The blood libel, full of hypocrisy and hatred, should not be allowed to prevail over the moral principles shared between our two countries and the entire civilized world.”