Canada takes aim at ‘premise’ of case against Israel at world court

While Canada fully supports the International Court of Justice, it doesn’t inherently support South Africa’s case alleging genocide by Israel in its war against Hamas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.

Trudeau made the comment while touring a construction project in Guelph earlier that morning.

South Africa has argued that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and its siege on the Palestinians that live there are “genocidal in character.”

Israel’s legal team fiercely rebutted the allegation during its opening arguments to the international court in Hague.

When asked about Canada’s position Trudeau said, “Canada right now is directly engaged in at least five cases at the ICJ because we believe in the importance of that as an institution, but our whole hearted support of the IGA and it’s processes does not mean that we support the premise of the case brought forward by South Africa.”

He says Canada will continue to monitor the case closely.

WATCH MORE: South Africa accuses Israel of genocide against Palestinians at UN court

Addressing another emerging conflict in the region, the Prime Minister said that Canadian Armed Forces members provided planning support for the American and British-led attack against Iranian-backed Houthi rebel positions in Yemen, but no Canadian equipment was involved.

“We have been there in a supportive role. There are Canadian military involved in some of the planning, but we did not have any operational assets involved in the precision strikes.

The US navy is warning American-flagged vessels to stay out of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours.

It comes as Britain reports a new missile attack on a ship off of Yemen and advising vessels to move through the Red Sea with caution.

The warnings follow Thursday night’s airstrikes by American and British warplanes against the Houthis in Yemen, who have been attacking ships in the key global supply route.

“Their actions could not continue, that’s why we supported the targeted actions to degrade their capacity to continue to put livelihoods at risk in contravention to international law.”

WATCH MORE: Hamilton man applies to bring his family from Gaza to Canada