The U.N.’s International Court of Justice will hold hearings on Thursday and Friday to discuss new emergency measures sought by South Africa over Israel’s attacks on Rafah during the war in Gaza, the court said Tuesday.

The measures form part of an ongoing case South Africa filed at the ICJ in December last year accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention during its offensive against Palestinians in Gaza, Reuters reported.

Israel has previously said it is acting in accordance with international law and has called the genocide case baseless and accused Pretoria of acting as “the legal arm” of Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants.

South Africa will address the court on Thursday after it asked the ICJ, also known as the World Court, last week to order Israel to cease its Rafah offensive and allow unimpeded access to Gaza for U.N. officials, organisations providing humanitarian aid, and journalists and investigators.

Israel will present its side of the case on Friday, according to the court schedule.

The war has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities there. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 taken hostage on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched the attack that started the war, according Israeli tallies.

The hearings in The Hague will only focus on issuing emergency measures, to keep the dispute from escalating, before the court can rule on the merits of the case, which usually takes years. While the ICJ’s rulings are binding and without appeal, the court has no way to enforce them, read the report.

The construction of a water canal, planned by the late Japanese doctor and aid worker Tetsu Nakamura, has been completed in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.

Nakamura was from Japan, but had honorary citizenship of Afghanistan. He was killed in 2019.

He worked in Nangarhar for many years, focusing mainly on building water canals.

Nakamura was working hard to complete his projects, but these were suspended following his death.

Later, the projects were resumed with the help of the government of Japan.

During his time in Nangarhar, Nakamura built several health centers and carried out more than 1,600 irrigation projects, canal constructions and provision of clean water.

His greatest work was the construction of a 25-kilometer long canal from the Kunar river, which irrigates hundreds of acres of land.

He also built a recreation park, dug wells, and established agricultural research farms.

“Dr. Nakamura made 9 weirs in Kama, Shewa and Behsud districts. Thousands of acres of land are irrigated and millions of people benefit from it. All the projects planned by Nakamura have been completed,” said Ajmal Stankzai, the representative of the Nakamura Foundation.

“Nakamura would behave with a laborer like a laborer. He would take stones with us. He used to tell us that the people of every country serve their country and you should also serve the ruined Afghanistan,” said Deen Mohammad, a resident of Koz Kanar district of Nangarhar.

In Kama district, the work of Nakamura projects is ongoing. One of the projects is the construction of a secon canal from the Kunar river.

“There was a huge water problem in Kama district. Fortunately, with Nakamura’s cooperation, many lands were irrigated,” said Bashir Ahmad Kamawal, a resident of Kama district of Nangarhar.

After Nakamura’s death, now an NGO called PMS is following in his footsteps and is working to build canals and dams.

Recently, the construction of a canal in Kot district of Nangarhar was completed and inaugurated. The canal is 5 kilometers long.

“Many projects are planned and our ministry has taken care of them… We thank them for feeling the pain of Afghans and helping our country,” said Abdul Latif Mansour, Acting Minister of Energy and Water.

Tetsu Nakamura was shot and killed by unknown men in 2019 when he was going to work from Jalalabad city. It is not yet known who was behind the assassination.