Who arms Israel?
The US
remains Israel’s biggest arms supplier, accounting for 68 per cent of its weapons imports between 2013 and 2022, according to the arms transfer database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
The US military also has stockpiles of weapons for its own use on the ground in Israel.
However, the Americans have allowed Israel to make use of some of these supplies during the war in Gaza, and previously sent some of the weapons to Ukraine.
The US also gives Israel about $4 billion in military aid annually, including about $500 million for air and missile defences.
A F-15 jet takes off at an airbase in the Negev desert, near the southern Israeli city of Eilat, in October 2021. EPA
Germany is in second place, accounting for 23.9 per cent of Israel's conventional arms procurement from 2011 to 2020, according to Sipri.
According to the German Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Ministry's 2023 Federal Government Arms Export Policy, the
country's arms and military equipment sales to Israel reached $354 million in 2023, a 10-fold increase from the previous year.
The UK has traditionally been one of Israel’s top three military supporters. Britain supplies about 15 per cent of the components used in the F-35s employed in Israel's bombardment of Gaza, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade, a civil society organisation.
Italy also remains one of Israel’s top arms suppliers, despite assurances last year that the government was blocking such sales following Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Italy exported $2.3 million worth of arms and munitions to Israel in the last three months of 2023. In December alone, it exported arms worth $1.41 million, three times more than in the same month in 2022.