The State of Israel is facing one of the most difficult questions in its short history: Should the war in Gaza be called genocide? The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will one day decide, but the debate has already moved beyond Palestinian human rights advocates, international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and foreign political leaders. Twenty-three months after the conflict began following the Hamas attack, a handful of Israeli historians and intellectuals now use the term and "Stop the genocide" signs have started appearing at demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

The question has existed in Israel since late 2023, though initially only to be dismissed. On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a petition against the State of Israel, accusing it of failing to comply with the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Pretoria cited what it called "genocidal" statements made by some Israeli leaders and highlighted the brutality of Israel's response after Hamas's terrorist attack, which left more than 1,200 people dead and 250 taken hostage. "The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip," the application stated.

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