Isreaelische Militär Maschinen, holten 2024, für 23 Millionen € Waffen und Munition in Serbien ab

 

 Serbian Arms Sales to Israel Top 23 Million Euros in 2024

An Israeli Air Force Lockheed C-130 landing at Belgrade airport on July 22. Photo: Viktor Damnjanovic.

Sasa Dragojlo and Avi Scharf

Belgrade, Tel Aviv

BIRN

September 2, 202407:41

With 7.3 million euros’ worth of exports in July, the value of arms and ammunition sold by Serbia to Israel this year has topped 23.1 million euros - despite widespread concern that they may be used in war crimes against civilians in Gaza.

Serbia’s main state-owned arms trader exported more than seven million euros’ worth of arms and/or ammunition to Israel in July, coinciding with five Israeli military flights from Belgrade to an airbase near Beersheba as the Balkan country continued to ignore concerns over alleged war crimes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

According to customs data from a website that collates Serbian business data, Yugoimport-SDPR exported arms and/or ammunition worth just over 7.3 million euros to Israel in July, bringing the total value of Serbian arms and ammunition exports to the country in 2024 to 23.1 million euros.

The exports come amid ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza in response to a deadly attack by Hamas in October last year. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel is also involved an ongoing conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which further fuels its need for arms.

The shipments in July coincided with five Israeli military flights identified by BIRN and Haaretz from Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport to Israel’s Nevatim airbase just outside the south-eastern city of Beersheba. Previously, BIRN and Haaretz identified six Israeli military flights between the two cities this year via open-source flight-tracking websites.

At least 15 flights have been made to Israel from Belgrade and the southern city of Nis since December 2023, which puts Serbia among the top countries of origin in terms of arms flights landing at Nevatim air base since the war began. The calculation is based on open-source data collected by Haaretz over the past ten months. Flights from the United States bases around the world come first.

On August 15, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said of the situation in Gaza: “This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defence Forces to comply with the rules of war.”

“On average, about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months. The scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is deeply shocking.”

War crimes concerns

The five July flights occurred across two days. The first two flights came on July 21 and were made by an Israeli cargo plane, which flew on behalf of the Israeli air force from Belgrade to Nevatim airbase; the next day, three different Israeli Lockheed C130s – serial numbers 545, 663 and 667 – landed in Belgrade and quickly returned to Nevatim.

BIRN and Haaretz identified three more flights in August – one on August 1 by an Israeli Air Force Boeing 707, serial number 272, from Nis to Nevatim and two more on August 20 – but these reporters were unable to identify any corresponding arms/ammunition export data.

ADS-B-Exchange data about an Israeli Lockheed C-130 Hercules flying from Belgrade to Nevatim airbase.

ADS-B-Exchange data about a Israeli Lockheed Martin C-130J, serial number 663, flying from Belgrade to Nevatim, July 22.

All Serbian arms sales to Israel this year came after the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, on January 26 ordered Israel to prevent its forces from committing or inciting genocidal acts against Palestinians, in response to a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. A final ruling on whether Israel has actually committed genocide in Gaza could take years.

..........................

In an August interview with the Jerusalem Post, Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric declined to comment on BIRN’s findings and whether the weapons shipments represent official state policy.

“Serbia will always call for a stop to violence and an end to human suffering, as well as support a peaceful, negotiated resolution, mutually agreed upon by all parties involved,” Djuric was quoted as saying.

The Israeli ambassador to Serbia, Jahel Vilan {photographed from the back} with a Serbian Foreign Ministry delegation led by minister Marko Djuric (in red tie), Belgrade, May 2024. Photo: Serbian Foreign Ministry.

The US has been Israel’s foremost arms supplier for decades. According to a 2023 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which studies conflicts and arms, 69 per cent of Israel’s arms purchases come from US companies, 30 per cent from Germany and 0.9 per cent from Italy.

The high number of civilian casualties and displaced, however, has made such arms exports increasingly controversial.

In June, Reuters reported that Britain’s approval of arms export licences to Israel dropped sharply after the start of the war in Gaza to a 13-year low, and that some countries such as Italy, Canada and the Netherlands have imposed restrictions on arms exports to Israel because of concerns about how the weapons could be used.

In August, the BBC reported that British Foreign Office official Mark Smith, who worked on counter terrorism, had resigned in protest at arms sales to Israel, saying the UK government “may be complicit in war crimes”.

 

 

https://balkaninsight.com/2024/09/02/serbian-arms-sales-to-israel-top-23-million-euros-in-2024/