While the media focus is on American support for Israel, other countries remain out of the picture even though they provide military support that is considered enormous for their small size, such as Serbia, which open-source data on air traffic obtained and analyzed by Haaretz shows is one of the most important countries in arming Israel by far.

Data indicates that 15 flights have landed at the Nevatim base in southern Israel since the beginning of the war, coming from the Serbian capital Belgrade and the city of Nis, while Serbian customs figures show the export of tens of millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Israel.

Based on customs figures and analysis of air traffic data, it appears that Serbia's state-owned arms manufacturer has increased its ammunition exports to Israel in recent months, with a total of $8 million worth of equipment delivered in July, for example, on five flights from Belgrade.

Previous investigation

A previous Haaretz investigation, conducted in collaboration with an independent Balkan investigative journalism network, showed that the company had sent $17.5 million worth of weapons to Israel since early January, bringing its total supply of ammunition and weapons to Israel this year to about $25.5 million, when July exports are included.

Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, Israel has benefited from an unprecedented Serbian airlift to transport thousands of tons of ammunition, including shells, missiles, bombs, and interceptor missiles.

The Israeli Defense Ministry said last week that 500 cargo planes had landed in Israel since the start of the war, not counting weapons shipments shipped by sea.

Open aviation data sources analyzed by Haaretz show that the Navatim base alone has received 230 cargo planes since the beginning of the year, most of them carrying supplies from the US strategic reserve. Of those hundreds of flights, at least 15 departed from Belgrade and Nis, a number that makes Serbia one of the countries most heavily armed by Israel.

true friend

The Serbian government rejected a Freedom of Information Act request by Haaretz and the Balkan Investigative Journalism Network to reveal the nature of the weapons, claiming the matter was classified.

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, declined to comment on the shipments, saying only that “Serbia will always call for an end to violence and human suffering, and will support any solution agreed upon by the fighting parties.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic - after a phone call between them last February - following the departure of a Serbian shipment as a "true friend of Israel", and thanked him for his "unconditional support in word and deed."

Israel's ambassador to Serbia recently said that Tel Aviv does not recognize that a genocide against Muslims in Bosnia took place, and that it abstained from voting in favor of a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly last May to declare an international day to commemorate the Srebrenica massacre, moves that Belgrade sees as an expression of support.

continuous flow

Serbian shipments continue despite calls by the UN Human Rights Council since April to halt arms exports to Israel to “prevent human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law,” a call joined by UN experts in June, who said arms exports could make supplying countries complicit in war crimes, “including the potential for genocide.”

The continuation of this Serbian air bridge also comes at a time when data shows a decline in the granting of Western arms export licenses to Israel, which, in the case of Britain, for example, recorded a sharp decline not known for 13 years, not to mention restrictions on these licenses imposed by other countries such as Italy, Canada and the Netherlands.