News – World: The European Center for Constitutional Rights (ECCHR) filed a lawsuit against the German government for continuing to sell weapons to Israel for use in Gaza. 

According to a report by Deutsche Welle on Thursday, human rights lawyer Alexander Schwarz stated, “There was reasonable grounds to believe Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza with the kind of weapons it is getting from Germany,” adding that “the German government is violating its international obligations by shipping weapons to Israel.” 

The report confirmed that the ECCHR is suing the government before a federal court in Berlin, hoping to stop the weapon exports.

"We used international reports from the UN, from Human Rights Watch and other organizations that really have a huge number of incidents," he said. "And as well we see online, for example, on social media, we see incidents and evidence delivered by members of the IDF themselves by showing they are destroying, for example, civilian objects."

Germany is the second-largest supplier to Israel, albeit a distant second to the US, supplying €326.5 million ($351 million) in 2023.

The lawsuit before the Berlin court applies only to what the German law labels "weapons of war" such as tanks, bombs and projectile weapons. These weapons constitute only 2% of the exports to Israel. Schwarz said ECCHR is planning to file another lawsuit covering the remaining 98% before a different court in Frankfurt.