South Africa on Wednesday asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague (CIJ) to impose new emergency measures on Israel against what it described as “mass starvation” as a result of the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

It is the second time Pretoria has sought additional measures from the top UN court, as its first request in February was rejected.

South Africa said, in a document released today by the International Court of Justice, that it is “compelled to return to the court in light of the new facts and changes occurring in the situation in Gaza — in particular the situation of mass starvation.”

Pretoria said her request could be “the last chance this court will have to save the Palestinian people of Gaza, who are already starving and now on the brink of starvation,” citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of UN Affairs (OCHA).

The International Court of Justice in February rejected a first additional request by South Africa against Israel, which had announced a large-scale attack on Rafah in the Gaza Strip, ruling that Israel had to respect the measures already ordered.

Pretoria had already appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, arguing that Israel’s operations in Gaza constituted a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The court has yet to rule on the matter, but on January 26 it ordered Israel to prevent any possible act of genocide and allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.

The war broke out on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants who infiltrated from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. The attack killed more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians killed that day, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In retaliation, the Israeli government pledged to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007.

At least 30,717 people have died since the start of the war in Palestinian territory, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.