The United Nations’ top court held a preliminary hearing on Monday in a case seeking to end Germany’s military and other aid to Israel on the grounds that Berlin “facilitated” acts of genocide and violated international law in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Israel strongly denies that its military operations violate the Genocide Convention.

While the lawsuit filed by Nicaragua centers on Germany, it indirectly targets Israel’s military operations in Gaza after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the region’s health ministry. The death toll was divided between civilians and combatants, but women and children reportedly accounted for the majority of the fatalities.

“We are calm and we will clarify our legal position in court,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said before the hearing.

“We reject Nicaragua’s accusations,” Fischer told reporters in Berlin on Friday. “Germany has violated neither the genocide convention nor international humanitarian law, and we will make this clear in detail before the International Court of Justice.”

Nicaragua asked the court for a preliminary order known as provisional measures, which would have included Germany’s “immediate suspension of aid to Israel, in particular military aid including military equipment, as such aid may be used in violation of the Genocide Convention” ” and international law.

It could take weeks for the courts to issue an initial ruling, and the Nicaraguan case could drag on for years.

Monday’s hearing at the World Court comes amid growing calls for allies to stop providing weapons to Israel as its six-month campaign continues to wreak havoc in Gaza.

The offensive has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population. Food is scarce and the United Nations says famine is imminent, and few Palestinians are able to leave the besieged territory.

“Next week’s case in The Hague is likely to further stoke opposition to any support for Israel,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame.

The United Nations’ top human rights body called on countries on Friday to stop selling or delivering weapons to Israel. The United States and Germany opposed the resolution.

Separately, hundreds of British jurists, including three retired Supreme Court judges, called on the British government to suspend arms sales to Israel after seven aid workers from the charity World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli attack, including three British citizen. Israel said the attack on the aid workers was a mistake caused by “misidentification.”

Germany has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades. Days after the Hamas attack on October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Olaf Scholz explained why: “Our own history, our responsibility for the Holocaust, makes us uphold the State of Israel. security becomes a permanent task,” he told us. legislator.

However, as civilian casualties surged in Gaza, Berlin gradually changed its attitude, became increasingly critical of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and publicly opposed a ground offensive against Rafah.

The Nicaraguan government, which has historical ties with Palestinian groups dating back to its support of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, was itself accused by UN-backed human rights experts of systemic human rights abuses “amounting to crimes against humanity” earlier this year. President Daniel Ortega’s government has strongly denied the accusations.

In January, the International Court of Justice imposed provisional measures ordering Israel to make every effort to prevent death, destruction and genocide in Gaza. The orders were issued in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention.

The court last week ordered Israel to take steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the war-torn enclave.

Israel said on Friday it was taking steps to increase humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including reopening a key crossing into northern Gaza.

Nicaragua argued that by providing political, financial and military support to Israel and by defunding the U.N. Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, “Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide and, in any case, is not fulfilling its obligations to the fullest extent possible.” Duty to Prevent Genocide.” Genocide Commission. “

Israel has strongly denied that its attacks amounted to genocide, saying it acted in self-defence. Tal Becker, Israel’s legal counsel, told a judge in court in January that the country was fighting a “war it did not start or want.”