Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to the Reuters news agency.
A source close to the Ministry of Economy cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel due to legal and political pressure from legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.
The ministry has not responded to requests for comment. However, the German government did issue a statement after the Reuters story was published.
“There is no German arms export boycott against Israel,” government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said. Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($363.5m), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the Economy Ministry, which approves export licences.
However, approvals have dropped this year, with only 14.5 million euros worth ($16.1m) granted from January to August 21, according to data provided by the Economy Ministry in response to a parliamentary question. Of this, the weapons of war category accounted for only 32,449 euros ($36,016).
In its defence of two cases, one before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and one in Berlin brought by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, the government has said no weapons of war have been exported under any licence issued since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, apart from spares for long-term contracts, the source added.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians since October 7, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. It has also displaced most of the population of 2.3 million, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court, which Israel denies.
No case challenging German arms exports to Israel has yet succeeded, including a case brought by Nicaragua at the ICJ.
