Serbian arms exports to Israel reach record levels

The Middle Eastern arms race has seemingly escalated amid reports that Serbian weapons exports to Israel have reached record levels, according to The New Arab and agencies on March 17th.

Since 2023, arms exports from Serbia to Israel have risen, reaching €114 million in 2025, a 140% increase compared to 2024, according to data from the Belgrade Central Statistical Office.

The increase in exports is reportedly tied to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which began in 2023 following the Hamas-led attack in Israel on October 7th.

According to Serbia’s Ministry of Trade, ammunition was sold to Ta’as Ma’arachot, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence contractor.

Elbit Systems specialises in the production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), electronic warfare systems and advanced artillery; the company has advertised self-propelled artillery systems as “battle tested.”

Serbia is not the only European country to continue trading arms with Israel, as Germany, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands and France have faced allegations of complicity in war crimes over their continued arms shipments.

Germany signed a security pact with Israel in January, having previously signed an arms deal worth $3.1 billion with Israel in December 2025.

A deal was made in October 2025 with Eurospike, a European subsidiary of Israel’s Rafael contractor, where Israel would supply Germany with anti-tank missiles.

Reportedly, Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier, accounting for around 47% of Israel’s total imports of conventional arms.

Weapons exports have continued despite concerns about complicity in crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

This is not the first time that Serbia has faced allegations of complicity in war crimes, as ethnic Serbs were responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia.

However, Serbia is not the only country with a record of religiously motivated violence to form defence ties with Israel.

On February 25th, it was reported that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was discussing defence cooperation with Israel during a state visit.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) likely has common ground with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition government, as both have been accused of discrimination against marginalised religious and ethnic groups.

Both Hindu and Israeli nationalists also seek to establish ethnically or religiously pure states, while there has also been a resurgence in Serb separatism in Bosnia.

The New Arab and agencies, Al Jazeera and agencies, Maghrebi.org