The South African government has condemned the targeted assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an airstrike on Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday. (Handout photo by the Iranian Presidency via Getty Images)
The South African government has condemned the targeted assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an airstrike on Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday, saying that his killing will further inflame tensions in the region.
Haniyeh was a senior leader of Hamas and a member of the organisation’s negotiation team and had been part of the ongoing talks aimed at ending the nine-month invasion of Gaza by Israel.
In a statement on Thursday, the department of international relations and cooperation expressed its condolences to Haniyeh’s family, the Hamas leadership and the people of Palestine.
It said South Africa was concerned that the assassination of Haniyeh and the continuous targeting of civilians in Gaza by Israel would “further spiral the already tense situation in the entire region”.
“South Africa urges that a thorough investigation be conducted and calls on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid any acts that would escalate tensions in the particularly fragile region,” it said.
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said extrajudicial killings such as the assassination of Haniyeh violated international law and the principles of human rights.
They also undermined global efforts to promote peace and stability in the Middle East, he said.
The continued occupation, the bombardment and targeted assassinations “would make the realisation of a peaceful solution in the Middle East much more difficult to achieve”, Lamola said.
“No country is above the law and all nations must respect international law, particularly the principles outlined in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he said.
“Any form of extrajudicial killing is a blatant violation of these principles and extra judicial killings of this nature have a destabilising effect. It is crucial that the perpetrators of such actions must be brought to justice.”
More than 39 000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza since Israel invaded last October in retaliation for an attack by Hamas in which about 1 200 people were killed. Almost 2.3 million people have been displaced by the attacks.
South Africa has brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for violation of the United Nations genocide convention, and has been at the forefront of initiatives to bring international pressure to bear on Israel.
Lamola said Haniyeh had been “an integral member of the negotiating team, working with other countries to secure a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire” and to end the “unspeakable man-made humanitarian catastrophe”.
“The international community must act immediately to bring to an end the genocide in Gaza, end impunity, end the aggression meted against Palestinians and end the illegal occupation by Israel,” he said.
“It is our collective human duty to call for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire. Nothing can justify the deliberate killings and injuring of civilians as an entire population endures destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history.”
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies said it noted the statement and accused the international relations department of “pro-Hamas bias” and of “demonisation of the only Jewish state”.
This story has been updated to add comment from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies