JERUSALEM

Israeli weapons exports have seen a significant increase last year, according to local media on Tuesday.

Figures by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s International Defense Cooperation Directorate showed that the Israeli military and security exports "surged by 30 percent” last year, Haaretz reported.

Israeli defense industries reported new contracts worth a cumulative $11.3 billion in 2021 compared to $8.6 billion in 2020, the report said.

As of September, Israel had nearly 4,000 military sales contracts in comparison to 5,400 sales contracts in 2021.

"This year is not yet over, but it appears to be on track to chalk up particularly high sales volumes and a long list of enormous defense deals," Haaretz said.

The newspaper attributed the surge in the arms sales to the signing of normalization deals with four Arab countries and the war in Ukraine.

In 2020, Israel signed normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The deals, however, drew widespread condemnation from Palestinians, who say the accords ignore their rights and do not serve the Palestinian cause.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar