A legal battle is set to open at the top UN court over an allegation of Israeli genocide in Gaza

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A legal battle over whether Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide opens Thursday at the United Nations’ top court. Two days of preliminary hearings at the International Court of Justice will examine South Africa’s call for judges to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military actions. Israel stringently denies the genocide allegation. The case that is likely to take years to resolve strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity as a Jewish state created in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide in the Holocaust. Israel is sending a strong legal team to the International Court of Justice to defend its military operation launched in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.