Accused of committing genocide against Palestinians, Israel insisted at the United Nations바카라 게임 웹사이트� highest court Friday that its war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide.Israel described the allegations leveled by South Africa as hypocritical and said one of the biggest cases ever to come before an international court reflected a world turned upside down. Israeli leaders defend their air and ground offensive in Gaza as a legitimate response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed through Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker told a packed auditorium at the ornate Palace of Peace in The Hague that the country is fighting a 바카라 게임 웹사이트�war it did not start and did not want.바카라 게임 웹사이트�바카라 게임 웹사이트�In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide,바카라 게임 웹사이트� he added, noting that the horrible suffering of civilians in war was not enough to level that charge.On Friday afternoon, Germany said it wants to intervene in the proceedings on Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트�s behalf, saying there was 바카라 게임 웹사이트�no basis whatsoever바카라 게임 웹사이트� for an accusation of genocide against Israel.바카라 게임 웹사이트�Hamas terrorists brutally attacked, tortured, killed and kidnapped innocent people in Israel,바카라 게임 웹사이트� German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement. 바카라 게임 웹사이트�Since then, Israel has been defending itself against the inhumane attack by Hamas.바카라 게임 웹사이트�He acknowledged that various countries view Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트�s actions in Gaza differently but that Germany expressly rejects the accusations of genocide.While the legal implications of German바카라 게임 웹사이트�s announcement were not immediately clear, its support for Israel carries some symbolic significance given Germany바카라 게임 웹사이트�s Nazi history.Hebestreit said Germany 바카라 게임 웹사이트�sees itself as particularly committed to the Convention against Genocide.바카라 게임 웹사이트� He added: 바카라 게임 웹사이트�We firmly oppose political instrumentalization.바카라 게임 웹사이트�Video below: Destruction in central Gaza after Israel strikesIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement, saying the gesture 바카라 게임 웹사이트�touches all of Israel's citizens."South African lawyers asked the court Thursday to order an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in the besieged coastal territory that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. A decision on that request will probably take weeks, and the full case is likely to last years 바카라 게임 웹사이트� and it's unclear if Israel would follow any court orders.On Friday, Israel focused on the brutality of the Oct. 7 attacks, presenting chilling video and audio to a hushed audience.바카라 게임 웹사이트�They tortured children in front of parents and parents in front of children, burned people, including infants alive, and systematically raped and mutilated scores of women, men and children,바카라 게임 웹사이트� Becker said.South Africa바카라 게임 웹사이트�s request for an immediate halt to the Gaza fighting, he said, amounts to an attempt to prevent Israel from defending itself against that assault.Even when acting in self-defense, countries are required by international law to follow the rules of war, and judges must decide if Israel has.As two days of hearings ended Friday, ICJ President Joan E. Donoghue said the court would rule on the request for urgent measures 바카라 게임 웹사이트�as soon as possible.바카라 게임 웹사이트�Israel often boycotts international tribunals and U.N. investigations, saying they are unfair and biased. But this time, Israeli leaders took the rare step of sending a high-level legal team 바카라 게임 웹사이트� a sign of how seriously they regard the case and likely their fear that any court order to halt operations would be a major blow to the country's international standing.Still, Becker dismissed the accusations as crude and attention-seeking.바카라 게임 웹사이트�We live at a time when words are cheap in an age of social media and identity politics. The temptation to reach for the most outrageous term to vilify and demonize has become, for many, irresistible," he said.In a statement from New York, Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트�s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the case a 바카라 게임 웹사이트�new moral low바카라 게임 웹사이트� and said that by taking it on, 바카라 게임 웹사이트�the U.N. and its institutions have become weapons in service of terrorist organizations.바카라 게임 웹사이트�Becker said the charges Israel is facing should be leveled at Hamas, which seeks Israel's destruction and which the U.S. and Western allies consider a terrorist group.바카라 게임 웹사이트�If there have been acts that may be characterized as genocidal, then they have been perpetrated against Israel," Becker said.More than 23,000 people in Gaza have been killed during Israel's military campaign, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. That toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Nearly 85% of Gaza바카라 게임 웹사이트�s people have been driven their homes, a quarter of the enclave's residents face starvation, and much of northern Gaza has been reduced to rubble.South Africa says this amounts to genocide and is part of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.바카라 게임 웹사이트�The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children, all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice. The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life,바카라 게임 웹사이트� said lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, adding that several leading politicians had made dehumanizing comments about people in Gaza.The Palestinian Authority바카라 게임 웹사이트�s foreign ministry welcomed the case, saying in a written statement that South Africa 바카라 게임 웹사이트�delivered unequivocal evidence that Israel is deliberately and systematically violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention.바카라 게임 웹사이트�Malcolm Shaw, an international law expert on Israel's legal team, rejected the accusation of genocidal intent and called the remarks Ngcukaitobi referenced 바카라 게임 웹사이트�random quotes not in conformity with government policy."Israel also says that it takes measures to protect civilians, such as issuing evacuation orders ahead of strikes. It blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, saying the group uses residential areas to stage attacks and for other military purposes.Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트�s critics say that such measures have done little to prevent the high toll and that its bombings are so powerful that they often amount to indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks.If the court issues an order to halt the fighting and Israel doesn't comply, it could face U.N. sanctions, although those may be blocked by a veto from the United States, Israel's staunch ally. In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the allegations 바카라 게임 웹사이트�unfounded.바카라 게임 웹사이트� The White House declined to comment on how it might respond if the ICJ determines Israel has committed genocide.The extraordinary case goes to the core of one of the world바카라 게임 웹사이트�s most intractable conflicts 바카라 게임 웹사이트� and for the second day protesters rallied outside the court.Pro-Israeli demonstrators set up a table near the court grounds for a Sabbath meal with empty seats, commemorating the hostages still being held by Hamas. 바카라 게임 웹사이트�We want to symbolize the empty chairs, because we are missing them,바카라 게임 웹사이트� said Nathan Bouscher from Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.Nearby, over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters waved flags and shouted protests.The case also strikes at the heart of both Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트�s and South Africa's national identities.Israel was founded as a Jewish state in the wake of the Nazis' slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II. South Africa바카라 게임 웹사이트�s governing party, meanwhile, has long compared Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트�s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Black people to 바카라 게임 웹사이트�homelands.바카라 게임 웹사이트�The world court, which rules on disputes between nations, has never judged a country to be responsible for genocide. The closest it came was in 2007, when it ruled that Serbia 바카라 게임 웹사이트�violated the obligation to prevent genocide" in the July 1995 massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.___Casert reported from Brussels. Associated Press journalists Aleksandar Furtula and Ahmad Seir in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.