All States must ensure respect for this guarantee by the sides to an armed conflict, as required by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law, a communiqué signed by special rapporteurs, independent experts and working groups alerted.

The signatories requested countries to refrain from transferring to Tel Aviv weapons or ammunition -or parts thereof- in the face of “past incidents or patterns of behavior, which would be used to violate international law.”

The text recognized the need for an arms embargo on Israel, made more urgent following last month’s ruling by the International Court of Justice on the existence of a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza.

In that regard, the communiqué welcomed the recent decision by a Netherlands appeals court ordering the Government to suspend the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing a “clear risk” of serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The statement coincides with the ever-deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, constraints on aid efforts and the risk of a ground offensive in Rafah, where half of the Strip’s population remains overcrowded.

ef/omr/lam/ebr