CAIRO, May 12. /TASS/. Egypt has decided to join the lawsuit against Israel filed by South Africa with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced.

"Egypt announces its intention to formally join the case filed by South Africa with the International Court of Justice," the Egyptian ministry said in a press release. According to it, the move comes amid "the worsening severity and scope of Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip." All this, Egypt’s diplomatic agency underscored, is in "flagrant violation of the provisions of international law, and the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War."

Egypt called on the Jewish state to "implement the ICJ’s provisional measures ordering Israel to ensure the entry of enough humanitarian aid to meet the needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

On May 1, Turkey, too, announced that it wants to join South Africa’s case at the United Nations’ top court. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Ankara was working to see how it could do so. A team of Turkish lawyers from the Justice Ministry and the Foreign Ministry as well as universities are currently involved in preparatory work.

In December 2023, South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel before the UN's highest court, citing the Genocide Convention. On January 26, the ICJ ordered that Israel take all necessary measures to prevent acts of genocide in the Palestinian enclave. The probe is currently in its initial stages, and work to consider the case on the merits will begin later and may take years.