Serbian Arms Sales to Israel Top 23 Million Euros in 2024
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.
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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”.
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