VIENNA, January 13. /TASS/. Rapulane Sydney Molekane, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the International Organizations in Vienna, doubted Israeli actions against residents of the Gaza Strips can be qualified as self-defense.

"Since Israel declared war on Gaza after the horrific Hamas attack in October last year, South Africa has expressed in several multilateral fora, including the International Criminal Court, that Israel’s conduct against the Palestinian people may amount to genocide," the South African diplomat told TASS.

"What we have witnessed since then, is the indiscriminate bombardment of residential areas, including critical infrastructure like health facilities, schools and even refugee camps and starving the population is not by any definition self-defense but genocide," he added.

The South African Republic filed a lawsuit against Israel for allegedly violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague in late December. The document asserts that the actions of the Israeli authorities can be characterized as genocide because they are being committed with the intent "to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group." South Africa’s claim asks the court to rule Israel is in breach of its obligations under the genocide convention and must cease all hostilities in the Gaza Strip as well as pay reparations.