Netherlands accused of war crimes complicity for Israeli military supplies

A Dutch court is set to hear a case accusing the state of complicity in war crimes in Gaza due to its supply of components for Israeli bombers.

Launched by human rights organisations against The Netherlands, the case, which opens on Monday, says that the Dutch state is complicit in the alleged war crimes due to the export of F-35 fighter jet parts.

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 war continues.

The court case will start at 10am CET (09:00 GMT) and will hear the claimants’ case and a response by lawyers for the Dutch state. A ruling is expected in two weeks.

The Netherlands is home to a regional warehouse which stores US-owned F-35 parts, which can be sent on to other F-35 partner countries, such as Israel.

Several weeks after the deadly October 7 Hamas attacks, the Dutch government allowed a shipment of reserve parts for Israeli F-35s, government documents show.

Last week, the country’s Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren told Dutch news agency ANP that she would not comment on the allegations prior to the legal proceedings at the court in The Hague.

But later, in a letter to parliament, the Dutch Ministry of Defence said that based on the current information, “it cannot be established that the F-35s are involved in grave violations of the humanitarian laws of war”.

Israel has denied committing war crimes in Gaza.

More than 15,000 Palestinian people including women and children, have been killed in the besieged Gaza Strip as the war continues to rage. Israel says Hamas fighters have killed 1,200 Israelis and taken 240 captive.

Like the rest of the European Union, since the onset of the war between Israel and Gaza, the Netherlands has maintained that Israel has the right to self-defence, in line with humanitarian and international law.

The Dutch government has not joined calls for a ceasefire that have been heard from some EU peers, such as Belgium and Spain.