BERLIN 

A Berlin court on Wednesday rejected lawsuits filed by Gaza residents seeking to halt German arms exports to Israel, dismissing the cases on procedural grounds rather than examining whether the weapons deliveries violated international law.

The Berlin Administrative Court ruled that the requests of the Palestinian plaintiffs were inadmissible because the German government had already changed its policy and stopped approving new weapons exports that could be used in Gaza.

In one case, a Palestinian living in Gaza requested the German government to stop approving weapons export licenses to Israel until Israeli military forces withdraw from Gaza. The court ruled this request for preventive legal protection was inadmissible, reasoning that such protection can only be granted if it is foreseeable that Germany would make similar decisions in the near future.

The court noted that Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared in August 2025 that the government would no longer approve new export licenses for weapons that could be used in Gaza, making immediate court intervention unnecessary.

In a second case, four Palestinians from Gaza challenged a license granted to a German arms manufacturer in late October 2023 to export 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons to Israel. After the weapons were delivered, the plaintiffs sought a declaration from the court that this approval was "unlawful."

The court dismissed this case as well, stating there was no concrete risk that the government would issue similar licenses under identical circumstances in the future.

“Future decisions on the supply of weapons of war fall within the core area of executive responsibility and cannot therefore be predicted with certainty. In addition, the situation in the Gaza conflict has changed significantly since autumn 2023,” the count said. “Therefore, it cannot be expected with the necessary probability that the German government will continue to decide on deliveries of weapons of war in the manner feared by the plaintiffs.”