Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Pool

Brazil will request to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, becoming the latest country to back a legal proceeding that Israeli leaders have lambasted as “an obscene exploitation” of the Genocide Convention.

The decision was reported earlier by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo and confirmed by Reuters. Other countries that have asked to intervene in the case include Cuba, Ireland, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Libya, Bolivia, Turkey, the Maldives, Chile, Spain, and “Palestine.”

Since December 2023, South Africa has been pursuing its case at the ICJ, the top UN court, accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli leaders have lambasted the case, noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.

Last year, the ICJ ruled there was “plausibility” to South Africa’s claims that Palestinians had a right to be protected from genocide. However, the top UN court did not make a determination on the merits of South Africa’s allegations, which may take years to go through the judicial process, nor did it call for Israel to halt its military campaign.

Instead, the ICJ issued a more general directive that Israel must make sure it prevents acts of genocide. The ruling also called for the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the terrorist group’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

During the Oct. 7 invasion, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered about 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250 hostages while perpetrating mass sexual violence against Israeli civilians.

Israel responded to the onslaught with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.

Brazil’s current leadership has adopted a hostile posture toward Israel amid the conflict. In May, for example, Jewish leadership in Brazil accused President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of pushing an “antisemitic libel” against Israel during a speech in Moscow, where he accused the Jewish state of “genocide” and made false claims about the Israeli military’s conduct.