While Chancellor Friedrich Merz's announcement that Germany is stopping arms deliveries to Israel made international headlines as a shocking policy reversal, the details tell a different story.
By Shir Hever
August 27, 2025
MONDOWEISS
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arriving in the Netherlands for the 2025 NATO Summit on June 24, 2025. (Photo: Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
While German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s announcement on Friday, August 8 to halt arms deliveries to Israel grabbed international headlines as a shocking policy reversal, the declaration’s fine print tells a different story. What appeared to be a major shift in Germany’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza may prove largely symbolic, with crucial loopholes that allow German companies to continue to profit from the atrocities in Gaza.
The devil lies in the details that most media coverage overlooked. According to media organization Jung und Naiv, the government’s statement apparently applies only to future contracts, leaving existing export permits uncanceled—a crucial caveat also noted by Oded Yaron in Haaretz. This means the vast majority of German weapons flowing to Israel will continue uninterrupted.
Merz qualified his statement by saying only weapons used in Gaza would be stopped, while Germany continues broader military cooperation. This became immediately apparent: on the same day as Merz’s declaration, German arms company ThyssenKrupp announced at its shareholder meeting that the German government had issued the second export license for INS Drakon, the final submarine in Israel’s fleet, which is sold for about 500 million Euros.
Germany’s strategic importance to Israel’s war machine
Germany’s role in Israel’s military operations cannot be understated. As Israel’s second-largest weapons supplier after the United States, Germany provided approximately 30% of Israel’s weapons from 2019-2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
German weapons exports to Israel include submarines, Saar-6 corvettes, Matador shoulder-mounted missiles, engines and gearboxes for Merkava tanks, propellants and detonators for 155mm artillery shells, rifle scopes, and HeronTP combat drones, which were manufactured by Israel, leased to Germany and then returned to Israel for the purpose of bombing Gaza. German shipping companies transport explosives and rocket engines to Israel. German companies also provide technology transfer through joint ventures, such as the development of 155mm self-loading howitzer cannons between Rheinmetall and Israeli company Elbit Systems. Unconfirmed reports of small-caliber ammunition and 120mm tank shell sales remain under investigation.
Crucially, Israel depends desperately on German components and ammunition that U.S. companies, already stretched by orders from Ukraine and Europe’s rapid militarization, are unable to provide. The limiting factor is the materials that must be imported, whose prices are soaring on the global markets. Germany also hosts subsidiaries of Israel’s three biggest arms companies, which manufacture weapons and components for the parent companies in Israel. This dependency makes Germany’s role not just significant, but irreplaceable in key areas.
While German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s announcement on Friday, August 8 to halt arms deliveries to Israel grabbed international headlines as a shocking policy reversal, the declaration’s fine print tells a different story. What appeared to be a major shift in Germany’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza may prove largely symbolic, with crucial loopholes that allow German companies to continue to profit from the atrocities in Gaza.
The devil lies in the details that most media coverage overlooked. According to media organization Jung und Naiv, the government’s statement apparently applies only to future contracts, leaving existing export permits uncanceled—a crucial caveat also noted by Oded Yaron in Haaretz. This means the vast majority of German weapons flowing to Israel will continue uninterrupted.
Merz qualified his statement by saying only weapons used in Gaza would be stopped, while Germany continues broader military cooperation. This became immediately apparent: on the same day as Merz’s declaration, German arms company ThyssenKrupp announced at its shareholder meeting that the German government had issued the second export license for INS Drakon, the final submarine in Israel’s fleet, which is sold for about 500 million Euros.
Germany’s strategic importance to Israel’s war machine
Germany’s role in Israel’s military operations cannot be understated. As Israel’s second-largest weapons supplier after the United States, Germany provided approximately 30% of Israel’s weapons from 2019-2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
German weapons exports to Israel include submarines, Saar-6 corvettes, Matador shoulder-mounted missiles, engines and gearboxes for Merkava tanks, propellants and detonators for 155mm artillery shells, rifle scopes, and HeronTP combat drones, which were manufactured by Israel, leased to Germany and then returned to Israel for the purpose of bombing Gaza. German shipping companies transport explosives and rocket engines to Israel. German companies also provide technology transfer through joint ventures, such as the development of 155mm self-loading howitzer cannons between Rheinmetall and Israeli company Elbit Systems. Unconfirmed reports of small-caliber ammunition and 120mm tank shell sales remain under investigation.
Crucially, Israel depends desperately on German components and ammunition that U.S. companies, already stretched by orders from Ukraine and Europe’s rapid militarization, are unable to provide. The limiting factor is the materials that must be imported, whose prices are soaring on the global markets. Germany also hosts subsidiaries of Israel’s three biggest arms companies, which manufacture weapons and components for the parent companies in Israel. This dependency makes Germany’s role not just significant, but irreplaceable in key areas.
Industrial genocide and German tech
Israel’s genocide in Gaza is an industrialized genocide. Investigative reporter Yuval Avraham exposed in November 2023 how Israel deployed surveillance and artificial intelligence to generate tens of thousands of bombardment targets in Gaza. His follow-up reporting in April 2024 revealed that this automated system had depleted Israel’s ammunition stores.
German technology proves essential to the efficiency of Israel’s killing machine. The deadliest weapon Israel has used against Gaza is the 155mm howitzer artillery, and German technology enables the deadly efficiency of loading 45-kilogram (99-pound) shells into cannons, aiming and firing without pause, 24 hours per day. This relentless bombardment capability depends directly on German engineering.
The human cost of this German-enabled efficiency is devastating. German Renk engines power the Merkava tanks that killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her family, and the paramedics who came to rescue her on January 29, 2024. These same tanks participated in the Flour Massacre of February 29, 2024, and continue shelling hungry Palestinians at aid distribution centers.
Loopholes and workarounds
German company Sig Sauer, which supplies machine guns for Israeli infantry forces in Gaza, produces them in the United States and thus remains completely unaffected by Merz’s declaration. Similarly, German arms company Renk has announced it’s considering moving production to the United States to avoid any restrictions, with Israel’s Ynet reporting this as a foregone decision.
Under the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which Germany signed, the decisive factor is the territory from which weapons are physically delivered, not which country owns the manufacturing subsidiary. This creates obvious opportunities for circumvention that arms manufacturers are already exploiting.
A symbolic gesture
TheMarker’s podcast called Merz’s statement a sign of growing global opposition to Israel’s Gaza operations, incorrectly suggesting Israel could simply purchase what it needs from the United States. This misses the critical point: Germany’s unique role in providing components that American companies cannot currently supply makes any genuine German embargo potentially significant.
However, the policy, as announced—affecting only future contracts while preserving existing permits and providing multiple corporate escape routes—suggests political theater rather than substantive change. Real policy transformation would require canceling existing export licenses, including all weapons and dual use items, and imposing a three-way embargo: banning the sale, import, and transit of arms to Israel as prescribed by international law.
Until Germany addresses these fundamental gaps, Merz’s declaration remains largely symbolic—a gesture that generates headlines while preserving the deadly status quo that continues to fuel the destruction in Gaza.
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