Washington has suspended shipments to Israel of heavy, bunker-busting bombs, munitions that Israel’s military has used in its war on Gaza that has so far killed 35,000 Palestinians.
President Joe Biden publicly warned Israel for the first time in an interview with CNN on May 8 that the US would suspend arms supplies if Israeli forces go ahead with a planned assault on the city of Rafah, which puts hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. Palestinian internal refugees who have found refuge there.
The United States is Israel’s largest arms supplier. Next is Germany – whose strong support is partly linked to the Holocaust atonement process.
Two countries, Canada and the Netherlands, have halted arms shipments to Israel this year over concerns that they could be used in ways that violate international humanitarian law by causing casualties and destruction in residential areas in Gaza.
Italy, although the top arms exporter to Israel, has announced that it has suspended new export approvals.
United States
The arms shipment suspended by Washington includes 1,800 900-kilogram bombs and 1,700 225-kilogram bombs worth tens of millions of dollars, according to US officials. The decision was made due to concerns about the consequences of using such powerful bombs in densely populated areas such as Rafah, according to US sources.
But billions of dollars worth of American-made weapons are already on their way to Israel, including munitions that turn common bombs into precision weapons, although approval processes have slowed, said Sen. Jim Reese, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken came one step short of declaring that Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza violates the terms of use of US arms, news website Axios revealed yesterday.
In 2016, the US and Israel signed a third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding covering the period 2018-2028 and including $38 billion in military aid and $33 billion in loans for the purchase of military equipment and $5 billion for anti-missile systems. Israel has received 69% of US military aid for the period 2019-2023, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Israel is the first country outside the US to use the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the world’s most technologically advanced fighter jet, and has taken delivery of 36 of the 75 F-35s it has ordered, paying for them with US military aid.
The US has also helped Israel develop the Iron Dome anti-missile system, which was developed after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Washington has repeatedly sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel to supply the system with missiles. interception.
Washington has helped finance the development of the David’s Sling anti-missile system.
Germany
German defense export licenses for Israel increased tenfold to 326.5 million euros in 2023 compared to 2022, after Berlin prioritized related applications following the October 7 attacks.
However, since the beginning of the year, and as international criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza has grown, the German government appears to have approved significantly fewer arms exports to Israel. Shipments worth 32,449 euros have been approved so far, the finance minister said on April 10 in response to a question from a left-wing MP.
Germany supplies Israel mainly with air defense systems components, according to the dpa news agency, which first published the 2023 figures.
Weapons exported to Israel include anti-tank systems and 500,000 rounds of ammunition for automatic and semi-automatic firearms. Germany has delivered around 30% of its military aid to Israel for the period 2019-2023, according to SIPRI.
Italy
An Italian Foreign Ministry source confirmed yesterday that Italy has suspended new export approvals following the start of the war in Gaza. “Everything has stopped. And the last approvals were issued in November,” according to the same source.
According to Italian law, arms exports to countries at war and to countries judged to violate international human rights are prohibited.
In March, Defense Minister Guido Croceto said Italy continued to export weapons to Israel, but only previously signed orders were being implemented after checks were made to ensure the weapons would not be used against civilians in Gaza.
In the month of December alone, Italy sent arms worth 1.3 million euros to Israel, tripling the levels of the same month in 2022.
Italy supplied 0.9% of total Israeli arms imports in the period 2019-2023, according to the SIPRI report. These imports include helicopters and artillery systems for the Navy.
Britain
Britain is not one of Israel’s major arms suppliers. Unlike the US, Britain does not directly supply weapons to Israel, but rather licenses companies to sell parts in US supply chains, such as for F-35 jets.
In the past year, Britain has approved export licenses to sell at least £42m worth of defense equipment to Israel – mainly ammunition, drones and parts for aircraft, helicopters and firearms.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told parliament yesterday that Britain operates one of the strictest licensing systems in the world under which it periodically reviews its assessment of Israel’s adherence to humanitarian law. “Regarding the export licenses, after the most recent evaluation, there is no change,” he added.
Opposition parties have called on the government to revoke export licenses as the death toll in Gaza rises and to release the legal opinions used as the basis for concluding that arms exports can continue.
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