Israeli arms companies’ revenues soared in 2024

Value of Israel’s defence exports increased 13 percent in 2024 compared with the previous year to a record of almost $15bn.

Israeli arms companies made record-high revenues last year, as weapons manufacturers market some of their products as “battle-tested” after their deployment in Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Israel’s defence exports increased 13 percent in 2024 compared with the previous year to a record of almost $15bn, dominated by missiles, rockets and air-defence systems, the Israeli government said in a statement in June.

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More than half the deliveries in 2024 went to European militaries, while other shipments went to countries in the Asia Pacific region, led by India.

Israel is one of the top 10 arms-exporting countries in the world.

The increase in revenues last year came as Israel faced allegations of genocide in a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), while the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.

“Israel sells the idea of getting away with it,” Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, told Al Jazeera.

“There is a very great appeal of that to many other nations.”

Shir Hever, an Israeli arms trade specialist, said that the countries that import Israeli weapons are aware that their action is “illegal”.

Hever told Al Jazeera: “[Buyers] know that a genocide is taking place, and third countries are under a legal obligation not to trade with countries that are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

As Israeli weapons companies increase revenues, Palestinians in Gaza who have survived the war recount attacks that killed their loved ones.

Kareem al-Birawi told Al Jazeera that his mother and three siblings were killed in a quadcopter attack at the Osama Ben Zaid School in Jabalia last year.

“I saw the drone enter the room. There was a red flash, then smoke came out,” he said.

“After that, there was an explosion and fire. My mum and aunt were screaming. Then they all went silent.”

‘We are watched all the time’

Israeli arms exports also include artificial intelligence and surveillance tools such as facial recognition technology, which is installed in hundreds of locations in the occupied West Bank and used extensively in Gaza.

Ahmad Lubbad, a released Palestinian detainee, discovered the extent of Israel’s surveillance in December 2023 when he was detained.

He told Al Jazeera that the Israeli soldiers knew his wife’s phone number, his new and old addresses, and the names of his neighbours and everyone he worked with.

“After what I went through in the interrogation, I am convinced we are watched all the time. Totally exposed,” Lubbad said.

Israel’s Ministry of Defence said in June that there was massive growth in demand from Europe in 2024, with exports increasing to 54 percent of the total from 36 percent in 2023. Asia Pacific followed Europe at 23 percent, and the United States at 9 percent .

Despite the increased demand from Europe, some countries, such as Spain, have imposed restrictions on arms imports from Israel.