International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor confirmed that she did speak to the Hamas leader to discuss getting humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The fog of the war between Hamas and Israel, already pretty dense, got a lot murkier on Tuesday, 17 October.

South Africa denied an alleged Hamas statement thanking International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor for supporting Hamas's brutal incursion into Israel when she spoke to the organisation's leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Government officials first denied that Pandor had spoken to Haniyeh at all. Then Pandor's office confirmed the call, but insisted she had only discussed how to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Meanwhile, 10 days into the conflict, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday this week first criticised Hamas for its "wanton attack on civilians in Israel" - while also repeating his earlier criticism of Israel for its bombardment of Gaza.

"While international law recognises the right of [the] oppressed and people who defend themselves to use arms as a means of struggle and defence, that right must be exercised within the bounds of the Geneva Conventions," Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly newsletter.

"The images of the killing of civilians in Israel by Hamas just over a week ago and the ongoing killing of civilians in Gaza by Israeli forces goes against the tenets of international law, which prohibits the targeting of non-combatants,...