Germany has stopped approving war weapons exports to Israel, source says
Reuters finds exports dropped from $363.5 million last year to just $16.1 million in Jan-Aug; government facing legal challenges claiming breaches of humanitarian law
BERLIN, Germany — Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to a Reuters analysis of data and a source close to the Economy Ministry.
Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($363.5 million), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the Economy Ministry, which approves export licenses.
However, approvals have dropped this year, with only 14.5 million euros’ ($16.1 million) worth 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.
A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licenses for arms to Israel pending a resolution of legal cases, arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.
The ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
In its defense of two cases, one before the International Court of Justice and one in Berlin brought by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the government has said no weapons of war have been exported under any license issued since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, apart from spares for long-term contracts, the source added.
On October 7, Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas in Gaza and save 251 people who were abducted from the country during the terrorist assault and taken as hostages to Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and the health ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The fighting has displaced most of the population of 2.3 million, caused a humanitarian 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.
Disagreement on arms exports in the German government
But the issue has created friction within the government as the Chancellery maintains its support for Israel, while the Greens-led Economy and Foreign ministries, sensitive to criticism from party members, have increasingly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration.
Legal challenges across Europe have also led other allies of Israel to pause or suspend arms exports.
Britain this month suspended 30 of 350 licenses for arms exports to Israel due to concerns that Israel could be violating international humanitarian law.
In February, a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to halt all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, over concerns about their use in attacks on civilian targets in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden’s administration this year paused — but then resumed — shipments of some bombs to Israel over US concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza.
Approvals and shipments of other types of weapons, in more precise systems, continued as US officials maintained that Israel needed the capacity to defend itself.
Alexander Schwarz, a lawyer at ECCHR, which has filed five lawsuits against Berlin, suggested that the significant decline in approvals for 2024 indicated a genuine, though possibly temporary, reluctance to supply weapons to Israel.
“However, I would not interpret this as a conscious change in policy,” Schwarz added.
