TEHRAN - A recent report by the German state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle revealed that Germany covers 30% of Israel’s arms imports, with the United States and Germany being the two major suppliers of weapons to the Israeli regime.

Amid the widespread and unprecedented killing campaign in Gaza, both countries have come under heavy scrutiny. Yet, they have not passed any legislation to limit the ongoing flow of weapons to Tel Aviv.

US arms exports to the Israeli regime

In 2023, the U.S. exported thousands of MK-84 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs to Israel and has been Tel Aviv’s most important arms supplier for decades. 

The MK-84 bomb is capable of causing widespread destruction of concrete and metal structures over a very wide area, which makes it the most unsuitable munition for urban warfare. 

According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 99% of arms imports for Israel between 2019 and 2023 came from the U.S. (69%) and Germany (30%).

Before Hamas’ Operation al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023, Washington exported an average of $3 billion worth of weapons to Israel annually. 

However, compared to other countries in the region, Israel purchases fewer weapons from America.  

Over the past five years, Israel received 3.6% of U.S. arms exports, while Saudi Arabia purchased 15%, Qatar 8.2%, and Kuwait 4.5%. 

U.S. fighter jets played a key role in Israel’s extensive military attacks on Gaza and also in strikes against alleged Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. 

According to SIPRI, the U.S. exported thousands of guided weapons and missiles to Israel by the end of 2023. However, the total volume of Israel’s arms imports in 2023 was not significantly higher than in 2022. 

What has become controversial is the supply of heavy weapons to Israel, especially in 2024, with protesters taking to the streets and blocking supply lines to stop military shipments. 

In May 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden suspended the delivery of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs after expressing concern over the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza and the conduct of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

Biden’s move came after the IOF was accused of human rights violations against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. 

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, since Israel launched its military operation in 2023 in response to the October 7 attacks, the death toll in the besieged area has surpassed 41,000. Nearly 95,000 others have been injured. 

More than two million people (almost the entire population of Gaza) have been displaced, and according to UNICEF, over 50,000 children face acute malnutrition due to the ongoing blockade.

A blockade that UN experts say has caused famine to spread across the Gaza Strip.

After it was announced that the delivery of 500-pound bombs to Israeli forces would resume, an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters that they were “concerned about the potential use of 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah and other parts of Gaza”. 

Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Rafah have killed many refugees and displaced Palestinians, prompting the International Court of Justice to order Israel to “immediately cease its military attack or any other action in Rafah”.

Although the U.S. suspended the delivery of heavy bombs for several weeks only, it did not stop the continuous flow of U.S. weapons to Israel. 

Reuters recently reported that the U.S. delivered “at least 14,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, and 2,600 small-diameter air-to-ground bombs and other munitions” to Israel by the end of June 2024. 

It Is noteworthy that the MK-84 2,000-pound bomb is one of the largest conventional unguided or free-fall bombs in the U.S. arsenal. 

This bomb is filled with over 945 pounds of highly explosive material and is often reserved for use against heavily fortified targets or underground bunkers.

Its use in densely populated areas has seen horrifying scenes of massacres across the Gaza Strip. 

German arms exports to the Israeli regime

In 2023, the German government authorized arms exports worth a total of €326.5 million ($355.3 million) to Israel. 

Of this amount, €20 million was allocated for war weapons, while the remaining €306.3 million was for defense equipment.

This equipment included 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons, 500,000 rounds of ammunition for automatic and semi-automatic weapons, other propellants, armored vehicles, military trucks, and bulletproof glass. 

By fall 2023, only €38.5 million of German military exports to Israel had been approved, but this figure increased sharply after October 7, 2023.

In November 2023, the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) announced that “plans for exporting military equipment to Israel” were prioritized following the October 7 attack. 

As a result, Germany’s share of arms exports to Israel rose from 2% in 2022 to nearly 6%. 

Israel is now ranked seventh among the main recipients of German military technology. Ukraine tops the list, receiving over €4 billion from Germany, followed by Norway and Hungary in second and third places, both purchasing over €1 billion in German arms.

In March 2024, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

As a result, activists and Palestinians condemned the German government’s policy on arms shipments to Israel. 

In early 2024, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) filed a lawsuit against the German government, seeking an urgent request to halt arms exports to Israel. 

The lawsuit was filed at the request of five Palestinians from Gaza whose relatives were killed in Israeli attacks. However, the Berlin administrative court dismissed the case in June 2024, stating that the German government had followed legal and international obligations when issuing arms export licenses. 

Amid the Gaza genocide, Germany took the most extreme stance in support of the Israeli regime. 

While the war crimes of Israeli occupation forces shocked the world, top German officials continued to insist that the Israeli army was adhering to international law and human rights.

For years, any anti-Israeli opposition in Germany has been suppressed with accusations of “anti-Semitism”, which reached its peak during the Gaza war. 

While Israel is becoming increasingly isolated on the global stage, the German government’s policy has put Berlin in a difficult position. 

Nicaragua has recently filed a lawsuit against Germany at the International Court of Justice for “facilitating genocide” in Gaza. 

Germany came under scrutiny after it fully supported the Israeli regime in a lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel, in a case concerning genocide in Gaza at the same UN court.