Is India supplying arms to Israel? ‘Third party vendors’ more likely at play

May 31, 2024 by Kofi Jane

However, experts said the likelihood that the explosives from India were meant to be used by Israel as weapons of war is highly unlikely.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive for a meeting in New Delhi in 2018. Photo: AP

“What is happening in Gaza is hand-to-hand fighting, a war of attrition, and targeted bombing, which is inhuman. But they don’t require Indian weapons or intelligence because it involves high-precision bombing,” said Pushpesh Pant, former dean of the School of International Studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“We tend to forget that explosives are not only used for conflict, but they are used for mining and other civilian purposes,” he added. He also noted that India lags far behind both Israel and the US in terms of modern explosive technologies.

Pant also cited the “long supply chain involved” as a reason to doubt that India is covertly supplying weapons to Israel, with shipments to Israel being tightly controlled by both land and sea blockades.

Right now, the notion that India was supplying arms to Israel was “only an allegation”, Pant said.

Israeli troops are currently pursuing Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite calls from the US, EU and other countries to curb the attacks to protect civilians in the area.

On Wednesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesman, Randhir Jaiswal condemned the loss of civilian lives due to an Israeli strike in Rafah as “heartbreaking” and called for respecting international humanitarian law in the ongoing conflict.

“We have consistently called for protection of the civilian population and respect for international humanitarian law in the ongoing conflict,” he said.

Delhi’s condemnation came nearly three weeks after Israel began its offensive in Rafah, which has forced nearly a million Palestinians to flee the city. Many have been displaced multiple times since the eight-month-old war began in Gaza.

The situation in Gaza has deteriorated over the past few months due to a scarcity of food, fuel, and other supplies, leaving Palestinians to largely fend for themselves.

India-Israel ties

While India has shown solidarity with Palestinians in the past, that relationship has waned in recent years, a trend that has accelerated during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 10-year rule.

Analysts attribute the shift to the government’s focus on garnering support from the majority-Hindu population at the expense of its Muslim minority.

Israel is an important weapons supplier to India and the countries share military intelligence, leading to diminishing support for Palestinians among Indians. Nonetheless, Delhi has tried to balance its position on the conflict by sending humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In February, local media reported that Indian trade unions had declared they would not load or unload weapons for Israel on any ships carrying arms bound for the country. This followed reports that a private Indian firm in Hyderabad had supplied military drones to Israel.

Analysts did say there was a possibility that weapons or explosives could be making their way from India to Israel via third parties.

“The whole arms trade is a very murky thing. Nowadays, it is possible to set up firms outside the country which can export arms to other countries,” said a source, who did not want to be identified, adding that a quid pro quo between the two countries could not be ruled out.