The top UN court will this week hear an application from South Africa alleging that Israel is breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention and seeking measures including the immediate suspension of its military operations in Gaza.

An 84-page filing submitted by the South African legal team says Israel “has reduced and is continuing to reduce Gaza to rubble, killing, harming and destroying its people, and creating conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group”.

The Irish government has backed calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Saturday condemned as “utterly unacceptable and inflammatory” comments by Israeli government ministers calling for the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza.

However, Mr Varadkar yesterday told RTÉ radio that the government does not intend to join the ICJ proceedings and urged caution around the use of the term genocide.

He declined to offer an opinion on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, saying: “I think that’s something that the international court will now determine.”

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald previously called on the government to back the South African case to “ensure that Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government are held responsible for their reprehensible actions at the ICJ”.

Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC is supporting the South African legal team as one of two external counsel, it emerged last week.