“Nicaragua’s conduct indicates that it was not interested in hearing Germany’s view on its allegations, but simply in bringing Germany before this court,” Julia Monar, a legal adviser at the German foreign ministry, told the judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Berlin was opening four days of hearings on Monday, asking the court to dismiss a case that accuses Germany of facilitating genocide in Gaza through its military support for Israel. Germany has been Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States.
Germany’s objections
Nicaragua brought the case in March 2024. It accuses Germany of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention and international humanitarian law by supplying weapons and other help to Israel despite knowing they could be used for serious violations in Gaza. It also says Germany failed to prevent genocide and worsened the humanitarian crisis by suspending funding to Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Germany says Nicaragua never established that a legal dispute existed before filing, did not properly notify Berlin of the allegations, and gave too little time to respond. Parts of the case, it argues, fall outside the court’s jurisdiction.
A second argument turns on the court’s Monetary Gold principle. Under it, the court cannot rule when the responsibility of an absent state would be the “very subject matter” of the case. Germany is expected to say Israel is an indispensable third party: judges cannot find Berlin guilty of aiding genocide without first deciding whether Israel acted unlawfully, and Israel is not before the court. Nicaragua is expected to answer that the case concerns Germany’s own conduct and obligations.
These hearings deal only with jurisdiction and admissibility, not with whether Germany broke international law. That question belongs to the merits phase. Mike Becker, a law professor at Trinity College Dublin, told Middle East Eye the court could decide that none, or only some, of Nicaragua’s claims go forward. He called the case a chance for the ICJ “to clarify the law with respect to the duty to prevent genocide and the obligation to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.”
How the case got here
In 2024 Nicaragua asked for provisional measures forcing Germany to halt military supplies to Israel and restore Unrwa support. The court declined in April of that year, noting that German arms exports had fallen considerably and that Berlin had a legal framework for assessing export licences. It also refused Germany’s request to strike the case from its list, finding no manifest lack of jurisdiction. Germany filed its preliminary objections after Nicaragua submitted its full written case in July 2025, which paused the merits.
The numbers behind the dispute have moved sharply. German government figures show approvals of military exports to Israel at 63.6 million euros in the first quarter of 2026 and 735.8 million between April and June, a provisional first-half total of 799.4 million. The whole of 2025 saw 201 million. Of the second-quarter value, 67% related to a major maritime defence project and 21% to cooperation between German and Israeli firms serving the German military. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found Germany supplied 31% of Israel’s major conventional weapons imports in 2021-25, behind the US at 68%.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz imposed partial restrictions in August 2025, suspending approval of equipment usable in Gaza. The government lifted them in November after the ceasefire, saying applications would be assessed one by one.
Nicaragua responds on Tuesday, and both sides give a second round on Wednesday and Thursday. The court will rule later. If the case proceeds, a final judgment could take years. Separately, the ICJ is hearing South Africa’s case against Israel over its war in Gaza since October 2023.
