ICJ updates: Nicaragua’s case against Germany over Israel’s war on Gaza

This live page is now closed. Thanks for joining our coverage of the first day of Nicaragua’s ICJ case against Germany.

We’ll bring you more updates tomorrow as Germany presents its defence on the second day of the hearings.

In the meantime, you can follow our live, around-the-clock coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

As with South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, it will likely take the ICJ years to issue a final ruling on Nicaragua’s case against Germany.

However, the court is expected to make a preliminary decision, ruling on the provisional measures sought by Nicaragua, within weeks.

Speaking to reporters after the ICJ hearing in The Hague, German legal representative Tania von Uslar-Gleichen calls Nicaragua’s presentation “biased”, adding that Germany looks forward to rebutting the charges tomorrow.

“Nicaragua’s presentation was grossly biased and we will be telling you tomorrow how we fully live up to our responsibilities,” she said.

These past two hours must have been very uncomfortable for Germany. Eighty years after the Holocaust, the country is in the dock facilitating genocide.

The Nicaraguan legal team called it a judicial drama because this is an exceptional, unprecedented case.

Two countries that are not directly involved in the war in Gaza are here at the highest court.

They are both signatories of the Genocide Convention and that’s why Nicaragua argues that Germany has its own obligation to fulfil this convention and not facilitate genocide.

Nicaragua’s delegation has concluded its oral arguments at the ICJ, accusing Germany of facilitating genocide in Gaza.

The court will reconvene tomorrow morning to hear the German delegation’s defence.

Stay with us here as we provide expert analysis on the first day of the hearings.

Gomez, in concluding remarks, has read out Nicaragua’s request for the ICJ to order the following provisional measures:

• Germany must immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance.
• Germany must immediately ensure that military equipment or weapons or other equipment used for military purposes already delivered by Germany and German entities to Israel are not used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention or international humanitarian law.
• Germany must resume its support and financing of UNRWA.

Nicaragua’s Ambassador Gomez has outlined the following main points in his country’s case against Germany:

• Since October 9 or 10, Germany has been aware that Israel is committing serious violations of international law in Gaza.
• Since the ICJ ruling on January 26, Germany has been aware that Israel’s violations may amount to an act of genocide.
• Nevertheless, Germany has continued to violate its international obligation to stop these breaches, while continuing to supply aid to Israel.
• Germany, as a party to the Genocide Convention, must halt this course of action and respect its international obligations.

“Germany cannot but be aware that the munitions, the military equipment, and the war weapons it is supplying” to Israel are supporting its attacks in Gaza, says Gomez, even if such equipment is not immediately being used for that purpose.

“It does not matter if an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to an Israeli tank shelling a hospital or university, or whether that artillery shell goes to replenish Israel’s stockpile for use at some later date,” he added.

“It doesn’t matter whether the planes used in combat to drop one-tonne bombs [on Gaza’s population] were made entirely in Germany, or just their spare parts and maintenance were supplied,” Gomez continued.

“The fact is that the assurance of supplies and replacement of armaments is crucial to Israel’s pursuit of the attacks in Gaza,” he said.

France’s Alain Pellet has finished outlining Nicaragua’s legal case against Germany, and Nicaragua’s Ambassador Gomez is now delivering the delegation’s concluding remarks.

“Professor Pellet has just explained how Germany’s conduct in relation to the ongoing situation in Palestine” does not meet its international law obligations, said Gomez. The case against Germany falls under two broad headings, he said:

• Germany’s responsibility for its failure to take action required by international law to prevent genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law.
• Germany’s responsibility for its actions or omissions that have facilitated and continue to facilitate the commission of genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

Pellet has pointed to Article 3 under the UN’s Genocide Convention, which outlines “complicity in genocide” as a punishable act.

“Germany was aware and continues to be aware of the risk of the weapons they are furnishing could be used by Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinians,” said Pellet.

“It is extremely urgent that Germany suspend its aid they are supplying to Israel to this end. This aid and assistance are straight from the definition of ‘complicity’ set out in Article 3,” he added.

Anticipating Germany’s defence that it is not itself committing acts of genocide or directly engaged in the Gaza war, Pellet has said this is a “Pontius Pilate-like” line that does not address the arguments set before the court.

He reiterated that Nicaragua is not accusing Germany of committing genocide, but rather of failing to abide by its own obligations under international law to prevent genocide and serious violations of international and humanitarian law.

“Far from doing so, Germany is going ahead with business as usual,” said Pellet.

Pellet, a French lawyer who teaches international law at Paris Nanterre University, is now speaking to the court on behalf of Nicaragua.

Germany, he said, is “only responsible through its own breaches of its own international obligations linked to this horrific situation” in Gaza.

“And [Germany] is responsible to the extent that these breaches have made possible or facilitated these grave violations of general international legal norms directed at the Palestinian people, not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the occupied territories and in Israel itself.

“It is this that justifies both Nicaragua’s application addressed at Germany and also the request for provisional measures.”

Muller says Germany’s suspension of funding to UNRWA has jeopardised a “vital” means of support for the Palestinian people.

“There is no question that Germany fully appreciates the importance of UNRWA for the Palestinian people in Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory,” said Muller.

“Before the 7th of October 2023, Germany was by far one of the most important donors to the agency. It is the second most important contributor,” he added.

Muller also said that “after having suspended the development aid to the occupied Palestinian territory in October 2023, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development released funds initially earmarked for UNRWA’s operation in Gaza with the federal minister saying: “UNRWA is the most important partner for providing assistance to the people in the Gaza Strip.”

Muller, continuing his remarks, said statements by high-ranking German government officials acknowledging the humanitarian crisis in Gaza are an indictment of the country’s own policy.

He pointed to a statement by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as recent as March 24 describing the situation in Gaza as “hell” and her saying that aid delivery needs to be streamlined.

“To put it simply, the highest German officials have recognised that the situation in Gaza raises doubts about the respect of elementary rules of international law and that these questions need to be addressed,” Muller said.

“Yet, while we speak, the export of German weapons and military equipment to Israel likely to be used to commit these grave violations of international law is continuing,” he added.

Legal expert Daniel Muller has now taken the floor on behalf of the Nicaraguan delegation.

“My task this morning is to set out some of the facts underlying the dispute between Nicaragua and the Federal Republic [of Germany] brought before the court,” he said.

Muller said he would focus on issues relevant to Nicaragua’s request for the court to order provisional measures – namely that Germany should immediately halt its military aid to Israel and reverse its move to stop funding UNRWA.

These measures are becoming “increasingly more urgent and necessary”, he added.

Speaking about Germany’s immediate suspension of funding to UNRWA following Israel’s accusation against its 12 staff members, Nicaragua’s Gomez tells the ICJ:

“What is striking in respect of this reaction of Germany is that on the say-so of Israel, they suspended assistance to UNRWA but they had ignored the statements and the accusations of the most important world authorities that genocide and other violations of international humanitarian law were being perpetrated by Israel in Palestine.”

Even if genocide were found not to be committed in Gaza, an argument Nicaragua does not accept, Israel is still in clear violation of other conventions, argued Ambassador Gomez.

He pointed to Article 55 of the Geneva Convention on Civilians, which stipulates the duties of an occupying power to provide food and medical supplies to the population.

This fact also means Germany has a duty not to abet Israel during its war in Gaza, he argued.

Ambassador Gomez has argued that, following the ICJ’s ruling on January 26, it is plausible Israel may be committing acts of genocide in Gaza so Germany had an obligation to stop abetting Israel in its war in Gaza.

“The obligation to prevent genocide arises once it becomes clear that genocide is being committed,” said Gomez.

However, “Germany continues to this day to provide military assistance to Israel.”

Continuing his opening remarks, Gomez says the Nicaraguan government and its people have a “special sympathy for the Palestinian people” due to its own struggle against military intervention.

“In the present case, Nicaragua is acting not only on its own behalf … but on behalf of the Palestinian people who are being subjected to one of the most destructive military actions in modern history,” said Gomez.

Nicaragua “has also been subject of military interventions and attacks for most of its existence”, he said.