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As the ICJ judge announced the provisional measures, applause erupted among a diverse crowd of about 30 gathered in a community centre in Cape Town, some wearing earrings and colours in support of Palestine.
“We are discussing the extent to which it can have an impact… For now it is a step in the right direction,” said medical student Kwezi Zwane, 24, as attendees embraced and commented on the ruling.
The ICJ’s rulings are binding on all parties but it has no mechanism to enforce them. Sometimes they are completely ignored.
Anti-apartheid struggle
“South Africa sincerely hopes that Israel will not act to frustrate the application of this order, as it has publicly threatened to do, but that it will instead act to comply with it fully, as it is bound to do,” the ministry said.
Pretoria has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, with the ANC party often linking it to its own struggle against apartheid.
The October 7 Hamas attack resulted in the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
At least 26,083 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli bombardments and ground offensive since then, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.
AFP