THE HAGUE (Reuters) – A district court on Monday will hear a case against the Dutch state launched by human rights organisations which say the export of F35 fighter jet parts to Israel makes the Netherlands complicit in alleged war crimes in Gaza, a The Hague court said on Thursday.
The organisations, which include the Dutch branches of Amnesty International and Oxfam, argue that “the Netherlands is contributing to wide scale and serious violations of humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza” by allowing shipments of reserve parts for Israeli fighter jets while the conflict continues.
The Dutch minister of defence told ANP news agency she would not comment on the case ahead of the court proceedings.
Earlier this month, Dutch NRC newspaper cited government sources as saying that the Netherlands had allowed a shipment of reserve parts for Israeli F35 jets despite warnings from legal advisors that such jets were being used in large scale bombing in the Gaza strip, which could violate international law.
Until the current truce Israel had bombarded the Gaza strip for seven weeks in response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants, in which Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Palestinian health authorities say more than 15,000 Gazans have been killed.
Several U.N. officials including the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights have raised concern that Israeli air strikes in Gaza could amount to war crimes, given their high civilian toll.
Israel denies allegations of having carried out war crimes, saying its forces abide by international law while fighting Palestinian militants who operate in densely populated civilian areas.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)