South Africa to Arrest Citizens Fighting for Israel in Gaza, Says Official
Speaking in the capital Pretoria, the official said that those citizens who held the dual nationality and fought in the IDF will be stripped of it.
- World News
- 2 min read
In a blatant warning, officials in South Africa said that its citizens fighting alongside the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the besieged Gaza Strip will be detained should they return to the country. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the war that started in October last year after Hamas attacked and raided the southern Israeli towns, taking scores of civilians hostages.
‘When you come home, we’re going to arrest you’: South African FM
South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, on Thursday, noted at a Palestinian solidarity event that all the citizens who travelled to Israel to fight in the foreign war will be arrested. Speaking in the capital Pretoria, the official added that those citizens who held the dual nationality and have been fighting in the IDF would be stripped of their South African citizenship.
“I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and who are fighting alongside or in the Israel Defense Forces. We are ready. When you come home, we’re going to arrest you,” the Associated Press quoted the foreign minister as saying. South Africa has been pressing its citizens against joining the international war in Gaza. It banned the citizens against joining IDF to fight in Israel-Hamas conflict last December.
South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation, noted that the citizens must seek the official government approval to join the war. The country filed a case against Israel at the United Nations' top court for the mounting civilian death toll. "I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and are fighting alongside or in the Israeli Defense Forces: We are ready. When you come home, we are going to arrest you," Pandor warned. It is unclear how many of South Africa’s 70,000 Jewish population have joined IDF. South Africa has compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestine to the apartheid era during which the South Africans suffers the racial segregation and oppression.