The International Court of Justice has ruled against emergency measures demanded by Nicaragua over German arms sales to Israel. Nicaragua had argued that there was a serious risk of genocide in the Gaza Strip given Israel’s attack on Palestinian territories.
Nicaragua also demanded that Germany resume funding for the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel claimed that some of its staff were involved in the October 7 attacks that sparked the ongoing fighting.
The ICJ rejected the application by a vote of 15 to 1. “The circumstances are not such that the exercise of his power under Article 41 of the Statute to order interim measures is necessary,” presiding judge Nawaf Salam said on Tuesday.
However, the judges did not grant the German request to stop the proceedings. The court will continue to hear arguments from both sides on the merits of the Nicaraguan case, which will likely take months.
Salam said the court “remains deeply concerned about the disastrous living conditions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, particularly given the persistent and widespread shortages of food and other basic needs they face.”
He added that the court “considers it particularly important to remind all States of their international obligations in relation to the supply of weapons to parties to an armed conflict in order to avoid the risk that such weapons” may be used in violation of international law could become.
In a two-day hearing in April, Nicaragua filed a lawsuit against Germany for allegedly complicit in genocide as one of Israel’s largest military suppliers.
Germany has denied the allegations and its lawyer has argued that the case against Nicaragua was rushed and based on flimsy evidence and should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
The Foreign Office wrote on X after the verdict that it welcomed the ICJ’s decision. “Germany is not a party to the Middle East conflict. On the contrary: We are working day and night for a two-state solution,” the ministry said. “We are the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. We are committed to ensuring that aid reaches the people of Gaza.”
“However, we also see that the terror of October 7 has set in motion this new spiral of suffering against which Israel must defend itself,” it continued. “Over 100 hostages are still in the hands of Hamas, which is using the people of Gaza as shields.”
Germany argued in hearings in the case that it had exported hardly any weapons to Israel since the offensive on Gaza began.
The court found that since the start of the war, Germany had granted Israel only four export licenses for war weapons, two for training ammunition and one for testing purposes, as well as a shipment of “3,000 portable anti-tank weapons.”
Berlin was a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, but gradually changed its tune as civilian casualties in Gaza skyrocketed, became increasingly critical of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and spoke out against a possible ground offensive on the southern city of Rafah Gaza Strip.
Moataz El Fegiery, head of the human rights program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said the International Court of Justice’s decision was not a victory for Germany.
“The court reminded Germany that it is obliged under international law not to provide weapons that could be used in human rights violations,” El Fegiery told Al Jazeera.
It was also clarified that current circumstances do not justify interim measures, meaning that circumstances may change and such a decision could be made in the future, the expert said.
El Fegiery said the Nicaraguan case was part of a “global mobilization” for Gaza that would likely trigger legal challenges against arms sales in domestic courts.
In January, the World Court in The Hague ruled in a separate case by South Africa that “there is a real and imminent risk that irreparable harm will be caused to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Genocide Convention.”
Israel, which is not involved in the case between Nicaragua and Germany, strongly denies that its attack on Gaza amounts to genocide and insists it was in self-defense.