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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Gaza ceasefire will not affect his country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Ramaphosa made the statement on Tuesday in Cape Town in parliament, stressing that South Africa’s determination to pursue its 2023 case despite the agreement on the widely lauded US-backed deal aimed at ending Israel’s war on the besieged territory.

“The peace deal that has been struck, which we welcome, will have no bearing on the case that is before the International Court of Justice,” Ramaphosa told parliament.

“The case is proceeding, and it now has to go to the stage where Israel has to respond to our pleadings that have been filed in the court, and they have to do so by January of next year,” he added.

South Africa filed the case in December 2023, accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza.

South Africa handed in a 500-page detailed submission in October 2024, with Israel’s counter-arguments due by January 12, 2026. Oral hearings are anticipated in 2027, with a final judgement expected in late 2027 or early 2028.

The ICJ has issued three provisional measures, ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, though Israel has largely failed to comply.

More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Ramaphosa emphasised that real healing requires the case being properly heard.

“We cannot go forward without the healing that needs to take place, which will also result from the case that has been launched being properly heard,” he said.

Responding to a news report about the announcement, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, wrote on X: “Peace without justice, respect for human rights and dignity, without reparations and guarantees of non reeptition [sic], is not sustainable.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, echoed similar sentiments, telling Spanish radio that the ceasefire should not mean impunity for Israel.

“There cannot be impunity”, Sanchez said, adding that “the main actors of the genocide will have to answer to justice”.

Several rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of committing genocidal acts in Gaza. A UN commission of inquiry found in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide.

Israel has strongly rejected allegations that it has carried out a genocide in Gaza.

Several countries have joined, or declared an intention to do so, in the ICJ case to support South Africa, including Spain, Ireland, Turkiye and Colombia, whose president, Gustavo Petro, wrote that governments risk becoming “complicit in the atrocities” if they fail to act.

United States President Donald Trump says his Gaza ceasefire deal will bring peace to the Middle East.

Some 20 world leaders, including Trump, signed the agreement at a special summit in Egypt on Monday.

The deal outlines the steps both Hamas and Israel must take to maintain the ceasefire and end the war in Gaza.

But it does not quite address the bigger question of what will happen in the Palestinian territory beyond the next few months.

What about Israel’s larger occupation? And the establishment of a viable Palestinian state?

How will Trump’s plan address these important issues?

Presenter: Nick Clark

Guests:

Ori Goldberg – political commentator

Phyllis Bennis – fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit Russia on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, Syria’s state news agency reports, as part of a broader diplomatic push to bolster the Damascus transitional government’s international legitimacy.

It will be al-Sharaa’s first official visit to Moscow, a longtime ally of the former Bashar al-Assad regime that al-Sharaa’s forces ousted in December.

During the visit, al-Sharaa and Putin will discuss “regional and international developments” and “ways to strengthen cooperation”, Syria’s SANA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the presidential media directorate. Al-Sharaa will also meet with members of the Syrian community living in Russia, the report said.

The Reuters news agency cited a Syrian official as saying that al-Sharaa will hold talks on the continued presence of Russia’s naval base in Tartous and its air base in Khmeimim. The source added that al-Sharaa also plans to formally request that Moscow hand over al-Assad, who has been living in exile with his family in Moscow since fleeing Syria in December.

Al-Sharaa, who once headed the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda under the name Abu Mohammed al-Julani, commanded rebel forces that seized Damascus and installed a new government late last year, ending al-Assad’s decades-long rule.

Since then, Russia has sought to build ties with Syria’s new leadership, including offering Damascus diplomatic support over Israeli strikes on Syrian territory.

SANA reported that Putin called al-Sharaa in February, expressing support for Syria’s “unity, sovereignty and stability”. In July, Putin and his minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov, met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Moscow.

The Syrian president’s visit to Moscow follows his September trip to New York, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), declaring that Syria was “reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world” and urging for an end to sanctions.