Aid groups sue Denmark over arms exports to Israel

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Four humanitarian organisations on Tuesday said they were suing Denmark to get it to stop its weapons exports to Israel.

The lawsuit was filed against the national police and the foreign ministry.

"Denmark should not be sending weapons to Israel when there is a reasonable suspicion that it is committing war crimes in Gaza," Tim Whyte, the secretary general of Action Aid Denmark, one of the organisations behind the lawsuit, said in a statement.

"We need to get the court's word on Denmark's responsibility," he said.

Investigative media Danwatch in November revealed that Israel's F-35s were equipped with parts made by the Danish group Terma.

The three other organisations behind the legal action were the Danish branches of Amnesty International, Oxfam and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq.

The lawsuit came almost a month after a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to stop exporting F-35 parts to Israel.

In mid-February, a Dutch appeals court judge ruled that there was "a clear risk that serious violations of humanitarian law of war are committed in the Gaza Strip with Israel's F-35 fighter planes."

Several similar lawsuits are underway in other countries, including in Canada where the foreign and justice ministers have been targeted.

But London's High Court last month rejected a similar petition to suspend British arms exports to Israel.

The war started with the October 7 Hamas attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also took around 250 hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes 99 hostages remain alive in Gaza, along with the bodies of 31.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed 31,112 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.