South Africa and Israel exchanged allegations on the eve of hearings at the top UN court which will hear South African claims that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, also known as the World Court, will hold sessions on Thursday and Friday in a case brought in late December accusing Israel of failing to uphold its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Both countries are parties to the convention, which obliges them to not commit genocide and also to prevent and punish it.

The treaty defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

The hearings will deal exclusively with South Africa’s request for emergency measures.

“Our opposition to the ongoing slaughter of the people of Gaza has driven us as a country to approach the ICJ,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday. “As a people who once tasted the bitter fruits of dispossession, discrimination, racism and state-sponsored violence, we are clear that we will stand on the right side of history,” he said.

Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy said on Wednesday, “Tomorrow, the State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel.”

Massive winter storm batters US

New York: A massive winter storm moving across the eastern half of the US on Tuesday knocked out power to about 811,000 homes and businesses in 12 states ahead of a brutal freeze expected to blanket the region starting this weekend.

The hardest hit states so far are New York and Pennsylvania, each with about 182,000 power outages, and New Jersey with over 127,000 outages, according to data from PowerOutage.us.

The biggest power companies in those states are units of Con Edison in New York, FirstEnergy in Pennsylvania and Public Service Electric and Gas, a subsidiary of The Public Service Enterprise Group in New Jersey.

Extreme weather is a reminder of the February freeze in 2021 that left millions in Texas and other US central states without power, water and heat for days, and a storm in December 2022 — known as Elliott in the energy industry — that almost caused the collapse of power and natural gas systems in parts of the eastern half of the country.

Reuters