South Africa’s foreign minister has denounced Israeli regime for launching a campaign of starvation against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Naledi Pandor said that Israel had defied a January interim ruling by the ICJ that it should take action to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

"The provisional measures have been entirely ignored by Israel," Pandor said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during a visit to Washington.

"We're seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes," she said.

 "I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example," she added.

Pandor said that Israel's actions may mean other nations believe that "there's license -- I can do what I want and I will not be stopped."

She said that South Africa's post-apartheid democracy was "merely practicing what is preached to us every day" by the West.

"The ICJ has not been respected. And the day an African disrespects (it) I hope we don't go to that leader and say 'Listen, you're out of bounds -- because you're an African, we expect you to obey,'" she said.

South Africa has called on the UN court in The Hague to order measures for Israel to stop "widespread starvation" triggered by its war in Gaza.