BERLIN

A group of Palestinians filed a complaint at Germany's Federal Constitutional Court challenging the country's arms exports to Israel, their lawyers announced Monday.

Five plaintiffs from Gaza brought the case with support from Palestinian and German rights groups, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) announced in a statement.

"As long as the German government approves arms deliveries to Israel that can be used in Gaza, it is violating its constitutional duties of protection and international law," ECCHR experts said in a statement.

"The German government must fulfill its responsibility: no arms exports to Israel while there is a risk of systematic violations of international law," they stressed.

The complaint follows previous legal challenges at local and regional courts that were rejected over the past two years. The plaintiffs invoke their fundamental right to life and physical safety under Germany's Basic Law, as well as their right to effective legal protection.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition government announced in August that it would halt approval of new weapons exports that could be used in Gaza, amid growing international and domestic pressure. However, the government did not commit to stopping deliveries of weapons already approved.

According to the ECCHR, previously granted licenses continue to be delivered despite warnings from UN bodies and international organizations about war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, announced on Oct. 10, has provided temporary relief, the ECCHR experts said in their statement. They emphasized that Israeli military attacks continue in parts of Gaza, and Israel still intends to occupy and control large portions of the Gaza Strip.

"The Trump Agreement has interrupted the Israeli government's genocidal war in Gaza," said Wolfgang Kaleck, ECCHR's secretary general. "However, neither have its crimes of the recent past been properly accounted for, nor has Netanyahu's regime committed itself to respecting the human rights of Palestinians and international law in the future. In such a situation, both the basic law and international law prohibit German arms deliveries to Israel."