Judge Joan Donoghue, the president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), is presiding over a 15-judge panel convening at the Peace Palace in The Hague. The court has been asked to issue provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza and to ensure Israel's compliance with the 1948 Genocide Convention.
South African lawyers were the first to speak at the hearing, with Israeli lawyers scheduled to take the floor on Friday.
South Africa brought the claim of Israel's genocidal intent in Gaza before the ICJ on December 29 in response to the surging civilian death toll in the besieged Palestinian enclave. It seeks to prove that Israel's military campaign is genocidal in nature and targets Gazans as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the South African case had no factual basis and that Pretoria was collaborating with "terrorists."
A number of countries, including Turkey, Malaysia, Venezuela, Brazil and Iran, supported South Africa's case against Israel. The US Department of State, referring to the lawsuit, said it saw no evidence of genocide in the Gaza Strip.