In July, Jugoimport-SDPR exported weapons and ammunition worth €7.3 million to Israel, disregarding appeals from UN experts to halt arms sales to the country.
According to export data accessed by BIRN through a portal that tracks the business activities of state institutions, this July shipment brought SDPR’s total arms exports to Israel in 2024 to €23.1 million.
The shipment data corresponds with five flights of Israeli military aircraft from Belgrade to Israel’s Nevatim Air Force Base, as identified by BIRN and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz using publicly available flight tracking information.
In a previous investigation, BIRN and Haaretz had linked six other flights—in February, March, and May—with similar export data.
Since December 2023, at least 15 flights have been made by Israeli military aircraft or planes known to transport weapons to Israel. These flights departed from Belgrade or Niš, with their final destination being Nevatim Air Force Base near the city of Beersheba in southeastern Israel. Haaretz’s data over the past 10 months shows that Serbia ranks highly among the countries from which Israeli military planes operate, second only to U.S. bases worldwide.
On April 5, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed a call to “cease the sale and supply of weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment to Israel, to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses.”
On May 20, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On June 20, UN experts reiterated their appeal for countries and companies to stop arms and ammunition shipments to Israel.
