President Gabriel Boric announced his country’s intention to join the case during a speech, accusing the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) of using “indiscriminate and disproportional” force.
“These acts demand a firm and permanent response of the international community,” he added.
South Africa brought the case against Israel last year, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, a charge that Israel denied. Chile is the latest in a growing list of countries that have joined the case. Earlier this week, Mexico announced that it would support South Africa. Nicaragua, Colombia, Libya, Maldives, Namibia, Venezuela, Egypt, Bolivia, Turkiye, Ireland, Belgium, Indonesia and the Organization of Islamic Countries which has 57 members, have all either formally joined the case, announced their intention to, or expressed support for it.
Germany is the only country that has said it will intervene on behalf of Israel and The United States declared its opposition to it.
Chile hosts the world largest community of Palestinians outside of the Middle East.
In January, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling saying that it was “plausible” that Israel was committing genocide and ordered it to take action to prevent genocide from happening in Gaza while allowing aid to reach needy Palestinians.
Last week, the ICJ issued another ruling, ordering Israel to stop its campaign on Rafah, the southern Gazan city where more than a million Palestinians were sheltering after Israel declared it the last safe zone in the enclave. Three days later, Israel bombed a tent camp of refugees in Gaza, sparking a fire and killing more than 50 people, many of whom were burned alive.
Israel initially said was carefully targeted to hit Hamas leaders, but after hellish images and videos of the attack spread across social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mistake.” The attack received widespread international condemnation.
At least 35,984 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its campaign against Gaza in October, including more than 15,000 children, according to the local authorities. More than 80,634 Palestinians have been seriously injured and at least another 10,000 are missing. Including Hamas’ October 7 attack and subsequent deaths during the fighting, at least 1,139 Israelis have been killed and more than 8,730 have been injured.