A legal challenge over the UK's role in arms sales to Israel will go ahead

LONDON (AP) — A legal challenge over the British government’s role in allowing weapons to be sent to Israel can be heard at the High Court later this year, a judge said Tuesday.

Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and the U.K.-based Global Legal Action Network filed the challenge in December, calling for the U.K. to stop granting licenses for arms exports to Israel. They said they acted after Britain’s government ignored their written requests to suspend arms sales to Israel following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the Israeli-Hamas war.

The case had been dismissed in February, but a High Court judge on Tuesday granted a judicial review hearing for it in October.

Lawyers for the human rights groups argued there was a “clear risk” that the weapons “might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.