South Africa’s top diplomat has accused Israel of setting a precedent for leaders to defy the top UN court, as she again alleged a campaign of “starvation” in Gaza, AFP reports.

Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s foreign minister, has said that Israel had defied a January ruling by the ICJ that it should take action to prevent acts of genocide as it fights Hamas 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 US capital 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.”

Pandor added 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 — in going through international institutions — 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.