Germany approved a controversial $3.1 billion weapons deal with Israel on Thursday which will see Tel Aviv supply Berlin with Arrow 3 missile defense systems, the Israeli defense ministry has announced.
It follows a similar $3.5 billion agreement signed between the two countries two years ago, making the two contracts Israel’s largest arms sale to date, worth over $6.6 billion.
The deal promises a major boost to Israel’s defence industry and comes as the country is facing pressure over its genocide in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In the summer, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a partial arms embargo on Israel in response to Israel’s plan to fully occupy the besieged Gaza Strip. The move was reversed in November.
Germany supplies about 30 percent of Israel’s imported weapons, second only to the United States, which accounts for almost 60 percent of its defence imports.
“The scale of reported harm [in Gaza], the legal warnings and the live ICJ case raise the risk level to a point where continued transfers and major deals become hard to square with Germany’s own stated standards,” Andreas Krieg, associate professor of security studies at King’s College London, told Middle East Eye.
“Berlin cannot present an expanded weapons package as business as usual and, at the same time, insist it applies strict tests designed to prevent arms being supplied where there is a clear risk of serious breaches of international humanitarian law.”
IMAGE CREDIT: The flags of Israel and Germany fly at the German air force’s Annaburger Heide airbase in Schoenewalde on 3 December 2025 (AFP)
[ SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST EYE ]
