IDF soldiers with South African citizenship to be arrested on arrival, Pretoria warns

South Africa warned IDF soldiers with South African citizenship that they would be arrested upon setting foot in their native home, according to the nation's foreign ministry.

“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,” said South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor during a conference on solidarity with Palestinians in Pretoria.

“The people of Palestine trained the freedom fighters of the liberation movement. This is a relationship, of freedom fighters, of activists, of nations that share a history. A history of struggle for justice and freedom.”

The statement increases Israeli concerns that nations opposed to the IDF's military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre would seek to arrest Israeli visitors that they suspect have joined the fight in Gaza to defend the Jewish state.

The IDF responded to the South African threat in a statement published in the Haaretz news outlet on Wednesday.

“The IDF is working to provide a response to possible security and legal risks when soldiers travel abroad. The IDF is monitoring the issue on an ongoing basis, in coordination and cooperation with the relevant government ministries.”

Before Pandor's statement this week, the South African government had already threatened Israeli soldiers holding South African citizenship that they were liable for prosecution if they returned to the country. In December, the South African Foreign Ministry said it was “gravely concerned” by reports that South African nationals were fighting or considering fighting in Gaza. 

“Such action can potentially contribute to the violation of international law and the commission of further international crimes, thus making them liable for prosecution in South Africa,” the ministry said at the time.

South African President Cyril Ramaposa has repeatedly called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide.” The nation filed charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICJ) in December, alleging that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

While the ICJ did not throw out the case entirely, it did not order Israel to call an immediate ceasefire against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

In October, Pandor spoke to the leader of Hamas just 10 days after the terror group massacred 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians.

In December, a Hamas delegation visited South Africa. In the past, Pandor has called for Israel to be designated “an apartheid state.”

The Iranian regime had initially called for Israel to be prosecuted, just ten days after the Oct. 7 massacre.

“The usurping Zionist government must be taken to court. In the context of Palestine, the entire world is witnessing the crime of genocide being committed by the usurping regime. The usurping Zionist regime must be prosecuted for it today...” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Oct. 17.

One of the world’s leading urban warfare experts, John Spencer, has said that Israel has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other military in the history of warfare.