The World Court ordered Israel on Friday to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians, although it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire as requested by the plaintiff South Africa.

While the ruling denied Palestinian hopes of a binding order to halt the war in Gaza, it represented a legal setback for Israel, which had hoped to throw out a case brought under the genocide convention established in the ashes of the World War Two Holocaust that targeted European Jews.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) found there was a case to be heard about whether Palestinian rights were being denied in a war it said was causing grievous humanitarian harm. It also called for Palestinian armed groups to release hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that precipitated the conflict.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the decision was a welcome reminder "no state is above the law". Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters it would contribute to "isolating the occupation and exposing its crimes in Gaza".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the ICJ's decision not to order a ceasefire, but rejected the claim of genocide as "outrageous" and said Israel would continue to defend itself.