2024-02-21T04:47:15+00:00
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/ The High Court in London rejected a petition to suspend British arms exports to Israel, according to the plaintiff’s lawyers.
A coalition of rights groups asked the Supreme Court in January to expedite a judicial review of the British government’s decision to continue selling military spare parts and weapons to Israel.
The UK’s strategic licensing criteria state that arms may not be exported if there is a clear risk that they could be used in violations of international humanitarian law.
The plaintiffs before the court, headed by the Palestinian organization Al-Haq, stressed that the government was ignoring its own rules in the Gaza conflict.
Among the organizations in the coalition is the Global Legal Action Network.
But the court ruled to reject the petition, according to what the prosecution lawyers said in a statement to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday, indicating that they are about to appeal the decision.
Pro-Palestinian organizations have filed several lawsuits seeking to stop arms exports to Israel as the death toll in the Gaza Strip rises.
In mid-February, the Court of Appeal in The Hague ruled that the Netherlands must stop delivering spare parts for the F-35 fighter jets used by Israel in the Gaza Strip, because there is a “clear risk” that the aircraft could be used in violation of international humanitarian law.
The war broke out on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters on southern Israel, during which more than 1,160 people were killed, most of them civilians, according to a count conducted by Agence France-Presse based on official Israeli data.
Israel responded to the attack by vowing to “eliminate” Hamas and has since carried out an intensive bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip followed by a ground offensive, killing 29,195 people in Gaza so far, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel says 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, including 30 killed out of a total of 250 people kidnapped on October 7.