Israel’s lawyers have told the United Nations top court that the country has the right to move ahead with a full-scale offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza to defend itself against Palestinian group Hamas after South Africa filed an urgent request to order a ceasefire as part of a wider case accusing Israel of genocide.

The United Nations’ top court opened hearings into request from South Africa to have Israel halt its military incursion into the Gaza city of Rafah.

South Africa was expected to ask the court to order Israel to immediately withdraw from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought shelter from the war.