Top UN court throws out Nicaragua's Gaza 'genocide' request

The U.N.'s top court Tuesday threw out Nicaragua's request for emergency measures against German military supplies to Israel, saying "circumstances were not such" to accuse Germany of violating a genocide convention.

International Court of Justice presiding judge Nawaf Salam said the circumstances presented to the court did not warrant "provisional measures".

Nicaragua has hauled Germany before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to demand that judges impose emergency measures to stop Berlin from providing Israel with weapons and other assistance.

More than 34,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since war broke out in October following a cross-border attack by Hamas that left around 1,170 Israelis dead.

Nicaragua targeted Germany rather than Israel's main ally, the United States, because Washington did not recognise the ICJ's jurisdiction in the case, Managua's lawyers have said.

They say Israel is in breach of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

  Arms to Israel 

Top lawyers from the two countries clashed earlier this month at the court, with Nicaragua saying Germany was "pathetic" to be both providing weapons to Israel and aid to Gazans.

Berlin retorted that Israel's security was at the "core" of its foreign policy and argued that Nicaragua had "grossly distorted" Germany's supply of military aid to Israel.

"Germany only supplies arms based on a meticulous scrutiny that far exceeds the demands of international law," said Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, a German representative to the ICJ.

Those supplies are "subject to a continuous evaluation of the situation on the ground", she added.

"The moment we look closely, Nicaragua's accusations fall apart,"...