The foreign minister says Ankara will submit a formal request to the International Court of Justice to join the case.
Turkey will join South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said.
„Once the legal text of our work is completed, we will submit a declaration of official intervention before the ICJ with the aim of implementing this political decision,” Fidan said Wednesday at a joint news conference with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in Turkey. Capital, Ankara.
„Turkey will continue to support the Palestinian people under all circumstances,” he said.
The ICJ ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that may fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure that its troops do not engage in genocidal acts against Palestinians after South Africa accused state-led Israel of genocide in Gaza.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in January that Turkey was submitting documents for the case to the United Nations' top court, also known as the World Court.
Turkey will formally request that Colombia join the case against Israel. Last month, the South American country called on the ICJ to allow it to join the case and ensure „the security and existence of the Palestinian people”.
The ICJ may allow states to intervene in cases and express their views.
Israel and its Western allies have described South Africa's allegations as baseless. A final verdict in the case could take years.
In a separate case on Tuesday, the ICJ ruled against issuing emergency measures on German arms sales to Israel as requested by Nicaragua, which argued there was a grave risk of genocide in Gaza during an Israeli attack.
Germany has denied the allegation.
Food supply
In emergency measures issued in March, judges of the ICJ ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective measures to ensure that the Palestinian people in Gaza have access to basic foodstuffs without delay.
Crippling food shortages have resulted in Israel severely restricting humanitarian aid and pressuring its military offensive, which began nearly seven months ago.
Rights groups and officials, including USAID head Samantha Power, say famine is already in northern Gaza.
According to Palestinian officials, the war has killed at least 34,568 people in Gaza so far, mostly women and children. More than 80 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and entire neighborhoods have been leveled by Israel's bombing and ground occupation.
In Hamas' October 7 attacks on southern Israel, 1,139 people were killed and about 250 captured.