By Anthony Deutsch, Toby Sterling and Stephanie van den Berg THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Israel on Friday rejected as false and “grossly distorted” accusations brought by South Africa at the U.N.’s top court that its military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign against the Palestinian population. Arguing it was acting to defend itself and was fighting Hamas, not the Palestinian population, Israel called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to dismiss the case as groundless and reject South Africa’s request to halt the offensive. “This is no genocide,” lawyer Malcolm Shaw said. I…