ISRAEL vowed today to defend itself before the United Nations’ top court against South African charges that it has engaged in a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Eylon Levy, an official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sought to smear South Africa, which has brought the case, by accusing it of “giving political and legal cover” to the October 7 Hamas raid that triggered Israel’s current military campaign.

“The state of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at The Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” he said.

South Africa launched the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, on Friday, saying that the magnitude of the death, destruction and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip caused by the Israeli military campaign against Hamas meets the threshold of genocide under international law.

It asked the court to order Israel to halt its attacks in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Israel usually dismisses international legal cases against it as biased and rarely co-operates. Its decision to respond to the latest charge signals that the government is concerned about potential damage to its reputation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with the brutal military campaign until Hamas is crushed and the more than 100 hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza are freed, which he has said could take several more months.

Heavy fighting continued today in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, but, with Israel facing a growing international outcry over the human cost of its campaign, Tel Aviv said on Monday that it was withdrawing thousands of troops from other areas.

This could mark a shift away from the massive air and ground operations that have killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians — almost 20 times the number of Israelis who lost their lives on October 7 — displaced some 80 per cent of Gaza’s population and flattened large parts of the tiny Mediterranean territory.

Israel has also the banned the delivery of food, water, medicine and other supplies to Gaza's 2.3 million people, except for a trickle of aid that the UN says falls far short of their needs.

Also on Monday, Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key component of Mr Netanyahu’s attack on the judiciary’s powers, which had sparked massive protests.

The ruling may kill off Mr Netanyahu’s flagship policy and could also damage his standing in the run-up to elections that are widely expected once the fighting winds down.