Spain Calls for European Arms Embargo on Israel; Germany Supplies About One Third of Israeli Arms Imports

Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, called on European countries to suspend arms supplies to Israel over its actions in the Gaza Strip. He said, “We must all agree on a joint embargo.” He made the remark at the Madrid Group Conference, which included Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco and Brazil, as well as several intergovernmental organizations.

The source notes that Israel is also one of the world’s largest arms exporters and has a substantial stockpile of its own weapons. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Israel is the world’s 15th largest arms importer, accounting for less than 2 percent of world imports, despite its active involvement in the military conflict. The source reports that imports have declined over the past decade but still made up about two-thirds of Israel’s military imports from 2020 to 2024.

The United States is historically the largest recipient of American aid. According to the American Council for International Relations (CFR), Israel received $228 billion (200 billion euros) in military support from Washington between 1946 and 2024. Under existing arrangements, the CFR reported, Israel will receive an additional $3.8 billion by 2028, most of which is to be spent on American military equipment and services. The source states that it is unlikely the United States will change its policy. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders’s attempts to halt the multibillion-dollar military assistance were rejected by the US Senate in November 2024 and April 2025.

Germany is another major supplier. The source reports that Germany has provided about one-third of Israel’s arms supplies, mainly sea frigates and torpedoes, along with armored vehicles, trucks, anti-tank weapons and ammunition, and says this course is unlikely to change despite Spain’s call for an embargo. On 26 May, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told WDR that he did not understand the Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip and said that the actions could not be justified by the fight against anti-Semitism. Official German statistics cited in the source show that Germany delivered more than 131 million euros in arms to Israel in 2024 and 326 million euros in 2023.

Italian weapons account for about 1 percent of Israel’s military imports, the source reports, and Italian law prohibits the state from selling weapons to conflict zones. The Italian government has criticized Israel’s actions, according to the source, yet last year’s reports indicated that Rome continued supplying weapons after hostilities broke out in October 2023. Arms sold in the last quarter of 2023 amounted to 2.1 million euros, and in 2024 the figure reached 5.2 million euros. The gap between a legal prohibition and continued sales calls for honest accounting (Luke 12:48).

The source says some European countries have stopped arms transfers or suspended export licences, including France, Spain and the United Kingdom. Their combined share, however, is less than 0.1 percent of total transfers to Israel. British trade statistics, which The Guardian cited in May, showed that the United Kingdom had nonetheless sent thousands of military goods to Israel despite the export ban.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Russian)