South Africa hopes Israel will comply with Friday's World Court order that Israel must take steps to prevent acts of genocide as it wages war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, justice minister Ronald Lamola said in an interview.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in favour of South Africa's request to impose emergency measures against Israel over its war in Gaza, but it stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Lamola also told Reuters on the sidelines of a gathering of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party that South Africa's liberation hero Nelson Mandela would be smiling in his grave at Friday's ICJ judgment.

The ANC has long defended the Palestinian cause, a relationship forged when its struggle against oppressive white-minority rule was cheered on by Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation.

The ANC has likened Israel's actions to its struggle against apartheid, a comparison rejected by Israel.

(Reporting by Kopano Gumbi and Siyabonga Sishi; Writing by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Alexander Winning)