The American newspaper "The New York Times" said that Israel has declassified more than 30 orders issued by the war government and military leaders that it claims "refute the accusations against it of committing genocide in Gaza."

The newspaper added that Tel Aviv says that "the orders instead show its efforts to reduce deaths among Palestinian civilians."

The declassification of these documents, which the American newspaper says it has seen, comes after South Africa based its accusation on statements made by Israeli leaders, which it described as inflammatory and indicated as “evidence of intent to commit genocide.”

South Africa filed the lawsuit accusing Israel of "violating the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" within the framework of the agreement concluded in 1948 as a global response to the Jewish Holocaust.

The New York Times stated that the mission of the Israeli government defense force is to prove that everything that some officials said “was overruled by executive decisions and official orders issued by the Israeli War Council and the army’s high command.”

The nearly 400-page defense file includes what Israel claims is evidence that it sought to wage war against Hamas and not a campaign of genocide against the Palestinians.

On Thursday, the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body affiliated with the United Nations, announced that it would issue a historic decision on Friday in the case against Israel.

The decision to be issued on Friday will only decide on South Africa's request for emergency measures and not on the basic issue of whether Israel committed genocide, an issue that will take years to decide.

A decision by the International Court of Justice against Israel would increase political pressure on it, and observers expect that it could serve as an excuse to impose sanctions on it.

It is possible that the court will order Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza, which it launched following Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, 2023.

Orders issued by the International Court of Justice that decide disputes between states are legally binding and cannot be appealed, but the court does not have broad authority to enforce its rulings.

The 1948 Genocide Convention does not only define genocide as the killing of members of a particular ethnic or national group, according to Ganina Dale, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, who stressed in an interview with the newspaper that “everything depends on intent.”

Therefore, both South Africa and Israel focus "not only on what the leaders and soldiers did, but also on what some of them said."