NICARAGUA urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday to allow its case against Germany to continue.

Nicaragua is arguing that Germany’s arms exports to Israel violate the 1948 Genocide Convention and humanitarian law as they were used in the genocidal war on Gaza.

The appeal came as public hearings on the preliminary objections raised by Germany took place in The Hague. Germany told the court on Monday that the case was improperly filed and should be thrown out.

Nicaragua’s lead lawyer Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez told the court that “it is impossible” that Germany was not aware of the “serious risk that acts that could amount to genocide were being committed by Israel.”

Germany suspended all military exports to Israel in August last year, but resumed a few months later, referencing the stability of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Israel continued daily deadly attacks on Gaza immediately following the ceasefire.

Nicaragua says that German arms sales went up significantly after the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7 2023.

Court documents show that export licences worth $378 million (£280m) were issued in the last three months of 2023 compared with $45m (£33m) in the first three months.