ANKARA 

European countries continue providing weapons to Israel through third countries and secret deals, according to some media reports.

Although countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and the UK have announced a halt to arms sales to Israel, international media reports suggest otherwise.

The UK maintains that it has not directly supplied arms to Israel since Oct. 7 last year, which marks the beginning of Tel Aviv's devastating Gaza offensive that has killed over 38,800 Palestinians. However, estimations suggest that private British companies have continued to sell Israel weapons.

Italy, meanwhile, has reportedly halted arms supplies to Israel as required by law. But according to a report in business magazine Altreconomia, the country's Customs Agency data confirmed that Rome exported arms and ammunition to Tel Aviv between December 2023 and January 2024.

Despite Norwegian law prohibiting arms sales to any country at war, media reports have said Israel continues to procure weapons produced in a US subsidiary of a defense company in which Oslo has a 50% stake.

While the Greek Cypriot administration appears on paper to be one of Tel Aviv's smallest arms suppliers, it has been claimed that Western nations are using it as a military stockpile site for their own weapons destined for Israel.

Media reports indicate that the British base in Southern Cyprus has facilitated more than 30 military transport flights delivering weapons and equipment to Israel since the attacks on Gaza began.

British journalist Iain Overton told Anadolu that almost all European countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK, have exported arms to Israel in the past, and many continue to do so today.

Overton cited the example of the UK, which issued 100 export licenses for arms sales to Israel since Oct. 7, hiding this fact for months, only to later reveal the truth.

He noted that many other European countries also sell arms to Israel, adding that this is often concealed from the public.

Arms flows continue despite Gaza onslaught

Noting that some European countries have decided to stop arms sales to Israel, Overton said this did not mean a complete halt to weapons to Tel Aviv.

Belgium, Italy, Slovenia and Norway are restricting arms sales to Israel, but not necessarily ending them, he said.

Underlining that Germany's position as the largest European arms supplier to Israel is related to its Nazi past, Overton noted that the country approved more than €9 million ($9.8 million) in export licenses to Israel between January and Feb. 21, most of which were for the sale of weapons of war.

Sales through third countries

Explaining that sales between countries were sometimes disguised through a third country, Overton said one of the fundamental challenges of any investigation into the arms trade was accounting for numerous component parts and subsidiary companies.

This makes it very difficult to identify transparency and prove that a country is willfully supplying arms to another country, he said.

Stressing that some countries use this method to continue supplying arms to Israel, he said the "reasons may stem anywhere from trying to avoid international restrictions towards trying to avoid PR fallout."

"But also, there's just the reality that it may be easier to just, in terms of arms processing, to export to a third-party country, and then that third-party country to end up exporting to Israel," he added.

Overton stressed that until a country is found guilty of human rights violations by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), arms exporters can claim that sales were made in good faith for self-defense.

UN, ICJ in 'existential crisis'

Even if Israel is proven to have committed genocide, it is possible for arms supplier countries to avoid accusations, Overton said. "Anyone who's exporting to Israel will merely be able to say, well, nothing was proven up until that point, and therefore we didn't break the law," he added.

"So, I think that there's just a general breakdown of the application of IHL (international humanitarian law) in conflict and that this is a really existential crisis for organizations like the United Nations, and for the ICJ and for others," he emphasized.

Criticizing the ineffectiveness of international agreements in preventing arms exports to conflict zones, Overton urged stricter national and international regulations to control the sale of weapons and reduce the likelihood of exported arms being used in human rights violations.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 38,800 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel in Istanbul