South African citizens who fight with the Israeli armed forces or alongside them in Gaza will be prosecuted upon returning home, the country’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, said during an African National Congress meeting this week.
“I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and who are fighting alongside or in the Israeli Defense Forces. We are ready. When you come home, we’re going to arrest you,” The Times of Israel quoted Pandor as saying.
Her remarks came after an initial warning issued in December by the South African foreign ministry, which said alleged international law violations by soldiers in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war made them “liable for prosecution in South Africa.” It added that naturalized citizens of South Africa could be stripped of their citizenship.
The foreign ministry in December also said that the South African government was concerned that some of its citizens or permanent residents had joined the IDF to fight in Gaza. It warned of prosecution if the citizens had not been granted permission to do so under South Africa’s arms control laws.
According to the Israeli Security Service law, all citizens, including dual nationals, must enlist in the military even if they permanently reside abroad.
South Africa, among the strongest opposers of Israel’s war on Gaza, filed a case against Tel Aviv at the International Court of Justice in December, alleging violations of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948.
Israel initiated a military operation on the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked the country on October 7, killing 1,160 and taking around 250 hostages.
More than 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza and over 73,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
