Germany will ask the International Court of Justice on September 7, 2026, to throw out a case filed by Nicaragua accusing Berlin of facilitating genocide in Gaza through its support for Israel. The plea triggers four days of hearings at The Hague before the court's 15-judge bench, with both sides getting two appearances before the chamber.

What is Germany asking the court to do?

Berlin has filed "preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court and to the admissibility of certain claims," according to a court statement. The exact contents have not been made public. Counsel for Germany will argue first on Monday. Nicaragua responds afterward, and both delegations return for second-round arguments on Wednesday and Thursday.

The ICJ typically takes about six months to issue a ruling on preliminary objections. The judges can either accept Germany's challenge and remove the case from the docket, or reject it and let the dispute proceed to the merits.

Where does the underlying case come from?

Nicaragua filed the case in 2024, weeks after Israel began its military offensive in Gaza. Managua asked the court to order emergency measures compelling Berlin to suspend all arms deliveries to Israel and all exports of military equipment. In April 2024 the chamber declined, ruling that "the circumstances, as they now present themselves" did not warrant provisional measures. The request was denied without a ruling on jurisdiction. The merits phase never opened.

Germany is now using the same procedural vehicle that defendants in earlier ICJ cases have used to test both the court's power to hear a dispute and the legal sufficiency of the pleadings.

What does Nicaragua allege?

During the 2024 hearings, Nicaragua's ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, accused Berlin of aiding Gaza's destruction while arming the country whose campaign is under challenge. "Germany seems not to be able to differentiate between self-defence and genocide," Arguello Gomez told the bench. Counsel for Managua called the policy "pathetic."

Nicaragua invokes the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, alleging German complicity in Israeli conduct in Gaza. Israel denies the genocide charge in a parallel South Africa-led case also before the ICJ.

How is Germany defending itself?

Counsel for Germany rejected Nicaragua's claims as "grossly biased," citing the country's post-1945 identification with Israeli security stemming from its Nazi past. Berlin told the court its arms transfers to Israel undergo "detailed scrutiny… that far exceeds the requirements of international law." Germany denies any breach of the Genocide Convention.

What happens if the court rejects Germany's objections?

A defeat for Berlin would not address the substance of the genocide allegation. The chamber would simply hold that it has jurisdiction and that the claims are admissible. The case would then move to written pleadings on the merits and oral hearings on those pleadings, a phase that could run several years.

A win for Germany would end the litigation without any ruling on Nicaragua's underlying allegations.

What does the ruling change for practitioners?

The ruling will clarify how the Genocide Convention's jurisdictional clauses operate against third-party states that supply arms, a question the ICJ has never resolved on the merits. State legal teams advising governments on weapons-export risk exposure should track the decision closely. Filings on standing, state responsibility for arms transfers, and the existence of a dispute will read differently depending on the result.

Even a binding ruling has limited teeth. The ICJ ordered Russia in 2022 to halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has not complied. Practitioners should expect enforcement of any eventual order to depend on political pressure rather than judicial sanction.

Key figures and dates

• September 7, 2026: Germany's opening submissions, The Hague
• April 2024: ICJ denies Nicaragua's request for provisional measures
• October 7, 2023: Hamas-led attacks that triggered Israel's Gaza offensive
• Average timeline: roughly six months for ruling on preliminary objections