Last weekend, South Africa asked the International Court of Justice for an 18-month extension to reply to the Israeli defense team's latest legal brief in the genocide case that it brought against Jerusalem in late 2023.
South Africa had been expected to seek an extension after Israel filed its monumental, approximately 1,000-page legal brief in mid-March.
But it was expected that South Africa would file an update in Spring-Summer 2026 with additional charges relating to 2025, to which Israel would likely need to respond by Spring 2027.
Instead, South Africa will have until November 22, 2027, to respond to Israel and file any updates, while Israel will have until May 22, 2029, to reply.
This means that there will not be any additional in-court hearings likely before late 2029, if not 2030.
Israel's brief was viewed by its government lawyers as one of the most momentous international law and war defense documents in its history, with its 1,000-page legal brief to the ICJ systematically dissecting South Africa's claims.
In addition to the main brief, which confronted the charges relating to the 2023-2024 period of the Gaza War, the document included an additional staggering approximately 4,000 pages of exhibits.
South Africa has not yet given a detailed attack on the IDF's conduct in 2025.
There are top IDF officials who have been even more concerned about the threat to Israel from the ICJ than they are from the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to IDF sources.
However, South Africa's latest moves could betray its own concern that its case will fall apart under the scrutiny of bringing evidence and the high legal standard that reigns in genocide proceedings.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said that, "All the claims of 'urgency' have now turned into South Africa\s quiet requests to buy more time."
'This case was never about the facts'
It added, "This case was never about the facts. It has always been a propaganda campaign by South Africa in the service of Hamas, masquerading as a legal process."
Israeli Justice Ministry Deputy Attorney-General for International Law Gilad Noam said that, "Israel's Counter Memorial, together with the extensive evidence supporting it, demonstrates that South Africa's Allegations are wholly unfounded and that this is a case that should never have been brought in the first place."
Such a long delay by South Africa is likely a major procedural win for Israel, as it puts off any verdict in the case until 2030 or later.
This takes some immediate pressure off Israel regarding the potential legal, diplomatic, economic, and reputational consequences of further court hearings on the issue, even if it wins in the end.
However, some Israeli sources feared that South Africa may not have asked for the delay merely to buy time to gather their case evidence. Rather, some sources say South Africa may be hoping to return to the ICJ in 2029 once Donald Trump is no longer the US president. It may hope that the next US president will be more favorable to its position, which could help at the ICJ, where politics often impacts how certain judges vote.
IDF on 'chaotic messaging' coming from senior Israeli officials
In confronting the ICJ challenge, some non-legal IDF officials have warned that their job has not been made easier by the lack of organized, coherent, and systematic global messaging coming from the government.
Rather, IDF sources cautioned that the messaging coming from senior Israeli officials is often chaotic, and messages from some officials undermine significant hard work by the military to build trust and credibility worldwide.
While IDF sources would not name specific officials, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich have been lightning rods throughout their terms, with many democratic countries banning them from visiting, and both may now be on a list of Israeli officials for whom the ICC is seeking to arrest.
Defense Minister Israel Katz has not been publicly banned, but has angered foreign countries, including officials in the Trump administration, with some of his statements, and has generally had a less influential global profile than his predecessors.
Sometimes IDF officials would see a provocative statement from some Israeli political officials, and would then fatalistically go on with their work, trying to improve Israel's reputation by improving the Palestinians' situation, knowing that the country would inevitably be hit with more anger in response to the statement.
The IDF has closed dozens of alleged war crimes cases arising from the 2023-2024 period of the war, the Jerusalem Post reported exclusively on February 8.
Generally, much more progress has been made for the 2023-2024 period than in more recent incidents, which only occurred in 2025.
Publication of the details of the case closures has been extensively delayed by fears that the ICJ and ICC will abuse any new information put out for a politicized anti-Israel agenda.
In the meantime, whether the ICJ giving 18-month and 36-month extensions to South Africa and Israel is a clean and unambiguous procedural win for Israel, or whether it also carries later potential political risks, it appears that the delay in the case may also delay Israel's readiness to tell its full legal defense story in detail.