I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
The US war on Iran keeps expanding into a
regional conflict, as more countries get involved. Reports show that
Donald Trump is getting desperate, and he is frantically seeking an
off-ramp. Washington announced a “pause” to the fighting, but it lasted
just four days. Ben Norton explains the three main reasons why the
United States is desperately seeking an exit: one, the Pentagon is
running out of missile interceptors; two, the number of casualties among
American troops is steadily increasing; and three, Yemen joined the
conflict, attacking Saudi oil infrastructure, exacerbating the energy
crisis.
Some 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco this week, including around 8,000 children
A Spanish soldier escorts a group of
migrants on their way back towards the Moroccan border, following their
illegal crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on 1 August 2026
(AFP)
A Spanish minister has suggested Israel was stirring problems over 60,000 migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, posted
on X on Friday: “Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture
Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis
over its immigration policy.
“Maybe before it continues lecturing us,
it’s time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial
enclaves in Africa,” he added.
Sharing Danon’s post, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente remarked: “Well, it all seems to be becoming quite clear.”
This comes as numerous Spanish politicians
and commentators have alleged that Israel and the United States have
sought to cause trouble for Spain in retaliation for the Spanish
government’s opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran and Israel’s war
on Gaza.
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Gabriel Rufian, the parliamentary spokesperson for the Republican Left of Catalonia, a left-wing party, argued that the crisis served American and Israeli interests.
Spanish journalist Jose Vizner, meanwhile, shared
a 2019 social media post by Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israel’s prime
minister, discussing alleged Israeli support for separatism in Ceuta.
Prominent Spanish actor Javier Bardem shared a video accusing Israel of being behind the crossings.
Former Portuguese minister and commentator Bruno Macaes said
that “whether or not the US and Israel were involved before the fact,
they were deeply involved and intensely active after the fact,
especially trying to use it against the current Spanish government”.
Ceuta, a Spanish territory on Morocco’s
Mediterranean coast, and Melilla, another Spanish autonomous city on the
country’s northern coast, share the only land borders between the
European Union and Africa.
Some 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta from
Morocco this week, including around 8,000 children, according to the
Spanish government.
Footage posted online showed people
swimming into the enclave around the border barrier, with some wearing
swimsuits and using flotation rings to make the dangerous journey.
Diplomatic spats over migrant crossings
France said
it was increasing checks along its border with Spain, while Italy
threatened to suspend Spain from the EU’s internal open-border scheme.
But on Saturday, Spain said most migrants, around 48,000, had already returned to Morocco, ushered by Spanish soldiers.
Videos online showed migrants hiding in tunnels and walking around on the streets of Ceuta.
At least 67 people are believed to have died while attempting to reach the enclave.
It is unclear what prompted the wave of attempted crossings, but there have previously been similar incidents.
In May 2021, 8,000 Moroccans entered
the enclave amid a diplomatic dispute between Spain and Morocco over
Western Sahara. At the time, Spain accused Morocco of using migrants as
leverage, and a Moroccan minister said Morocco was justified in relaxing its border control as a response to the diplomatic dispute.
Thousands make dramatic sea crossing into Ceuta from Morocco
Some commentators have accused Morocco of
facilitating this week’s crossings, pointing to the Moroccan
government’s anger at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent
visit to Algeria, Spain’s biggest gas supplier.
Lorenzo Gabrielli, a senior researcher at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona who researches migration in Ceuta, told
the New York Times: “It is impossible for nearly 50,000 people to cross
the border between Morocco and Spain in a single day without Morocco
having a hand in it.”
Ceuta President Juan Jesus Vivas condemned the migration as a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity”.
Morocco’s ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, said: “We have always prioritised legal, orderly and safe migration for all.”
She insisted the crossings had been against the wishes of the Moroccan government.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump called
the situation a “catastrophe” and added that “if we’re not in office
our country will be invaded at levels that will make Spain look small
time”.
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General view of the US Embassy in Amman, Jordan on March 02, 2026. [Screengrab/AA]
More than 130 Jordanian political,
academic, cultural, trade union and tribal figures have called for the
withdrawal of foreign troops from Jordan and the cancellation or
restriction of the kingdom’s military agreement with the United States.
In a statement published last week, the
signatories warned that the presence of foreign forces had exposed
Jordan to security, political and economic threats and increased the
risk of the country becoming involved in a regional war in which it had
no direct interest.
“Based on our national responsibility and
in recognition of the magnitude of the risks facing the region as a
result of the accelerating military escalation, we demand the withdrawal
of all foreign forces from Jordanian territory,” the statement
declared.
It added that their presence “increases
the likelihood of our country becoming involved in a regional conflict
to which it is not a party”.
The appeal followed repeated Iranian
missile and drone attacks against facilities hosting US forces in
Jordan, which caused American casualties and damage to military assets.
The attacks have intensified public debate over whether Washington’s
military presence has turned Jordan into a target in the escalating
confrontation between the US and Iran.
The signatories urged the Jordanian
government to withdraw the security and military agreement concluded
with Washington and submit it to the National Assembly for proper
scrutiny.
They argued that Jordanians, their elected
representatives and civil society institutions had a right to examine
obligations that “may affect the state’s sovereignty and national
security”.
The statement called on parliament to
debate whether the agreement should be cancelled or restricted and
demanded greater public transparency regarding its terms.
Jordan’s defence cooperation agreement with the US was signed in 2021.
It grants US troops, aircraft and vehicles broad freedom of entry and
movement in Jordan and permits American forces to carry weapons and
transport and store military equipment. Critics objected at the time
that the government had approved the agreement without submitting it to
parliament.
The Jordanian figures also demanded that
the authorities prevent the use of the kingdom’s airports, ports,
military bases and other strategic infrastructure in operations
connected to the regional conflict.
“We stress the necessity of neutralising
all Jordanian strategic facilities, especially airports, ports, military
bases and other vital facilities,” the statement continued.
It called for guarantees that the sites
would not support “any military, security or logistical actions or
operations related to the ongoing aggressive war against the peoples of
the region”.
“Jordan is not a party to this war, and
its people must not bear its consequences or pay the price for policies
that do not serve their highest interests,” the signatories warned.
They highlighted the economic and social
pressures already facing Jordanians and argued that continued regional
escalation threatened the national economy, domestic stability and
Jordan’s relations with neighbouring states.
The statement praised the Jordanian Armed
Forces-Arab Army but insisted that its military doctrine should remain
focused on defending the country, its people and its holy sites.
It said the army’s national role should
remain directed towards confronting what it described as “the Zionist
enemy marked by genocide, displacement and expansion”, recalling
Jordanian forces’ historical role in the battles of Al-Karama, Bab
Al-Wad and Latrun and in the defence of Jerusalem.
The signatories called on the authorities
to adopt what they described as a policy of “true neutrality”, based on
refusing to participate in military or logistical activities serving any
side in the conflict.
They urged the government to take
“immediate and practical steps” to protect Jordan’s sovereignty,
security, stability and independent decision-making and to spare the
kingdom “the dangers of alignment under the American cloak”.
The statement concluded: “Long live
Jordan, free, sovereign and independent. Shame and disgrace to all the
colonial forces in our region.”
Israel is pursuing a long-term strategy to
enmesh itself within the US military, intelligence, and defense
establishment, fearing that a collapse in US public support for Israel
could otherwise jeopardize billions in future US aid, Capital & Empirereported on 30 July.
According to a new US intelligence
assessment, “Israeli officials believe the political fight over Israel
in the United States is becoming harder to win, and that the era of
indefinitely securing billions of dollars in annual military aid is
coming to an end.”
Israeli officials are therefore seeking
ways to embed the Israeli military within the US military in “ways
future administrations would struggle to unwind,” according to an
assessment described to Capital & Empire by US officials.
Currently, Israel receives military aid
from the US that must be approved annually through transparent votes by
lawmakers in Congress and the Senate.
But the collapse in public support in the
US for Israel following the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza that
started in October 2023 has put such future US military aid to Israel in
jeopardy.
The assessment, written primarily by the
CIA, discusses expanding intelligence cooperation with Israel and
hosting a permanent US military base on Israeli territory.
It says Israeli officials have been
grooming prominent US tech executives to build long-term political and
financial support for the effort.
Israel has been advancing this agenda
since earlier this year, lobbying lawmakers to pass the $1.1-trillion
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The NDAA includes Section 219, which
integrates US military intelligence and the defense industrial base with
the Israeli military.
The House of Representatives passed
a version of the bill on 22 July. The bill now heads to the Senate,
where it must be approved before it is sent to US President Donald Trump
for his signature.
The vast majority of Democratic lawmakers
in the House voted against the bill, as public shows of support for
Israel are becoming a political liability.
However, six House Democrats, Henry
Cuellar, Don Davis, Jared Golden, Vicente Gonzalez, Adam Gray, and Marie
Gluesenkamp Perez joined Republicans to vote for the bill, just enough
to allow it to pass.
Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who
lost in a Republican primary for re-election in May in part due to the
Israel lobby, called Section 219 of the NDAA “a betrayal of our
sovereignty.”
Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he wanted to end Israel’s reliance on US military aid.
However, the assessment states that the
CIA believes that Netanyahu made such statements as part of a plan to
replace highly unpopular “foreign aid with deeper, longer-lasting forms
of military and industrial integration.”
“From Israel’s perspective, embedding the
alliance more deeply within the US national security apparatus would
make it far more difficult for future administrations to pressure Israel
by slowing or withholding arms transfers,” Capital & Empire wrote.
During former US president Joe Biden’s
term, Secretary of State Antony Blinken needed to take several emergency
measures to ensure that US bombs kept flowing to Israel as it
perpetrated the genocide of Palestinians.
Providing US military aid to Israel as it
committed war crimes in Gaza was not only unpopular among Biden’s
Democratic base, it was also illegal under US law.
Blinken moved ahead with the bomb
shipments, which helped Israel’s Air Force kill tens of thousands of
children, despite public backlash.
About 60 percent of US adults now hold an unfavorable view of Israel, according to an April Pew Research Center survey.
An Economist/YouGov poll published
on 28 July found that 49 percent of US citizens said Netanyahu should
be taken into custody if he sets foot on US soil while subject to an
International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, whereas only 27
percent said he should not be. Netanyahu visited the White House earlier
this week.
If the NDAA is passed with section 2019
included, Israel will not risk future US politicians buckling to public
pressure to end the arms flows it needs to continue the genocide in Gaza
and bombing and ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon.
According to the intelligence assessment,
Israeli officials also want Israeli technology, intelligence, and
weapons systems to be embedded within the US military itself, making the
US increasingly reliant on Israel.
The assessment says Israeli officials want
to convince US officials and lawmakers that Israel is a “model ally”
whose relationship with the US is mutually beneficial, rather than a
liability.
According to some reports, Israel played a
key role in dragging the US into its current war with Iran. Israel is
no longer participating directly in the war, which is highly unpopular
in the US and costing taxpayers some $2 billion a day.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends the
ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila on July 23, 2026Photo by Ezra Acayan/AFP
via Getty Images
A report published this week by the State
Department is the latest weapon employed by the Trump administration in
its campaign for aggressive intervention in Cuba, according to members
of Congress and experts on the beleaguered Caribbean island nation.
Despite Cuba being severely hobbled by in the throes of a humanitarian crisis engineered by U.S. sanctions and fuel blockades, the new report paints the country as a major threat.
The report appears to be the brainchild of
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a first-generation Cuban American
who has made the overthrow of the Cuban government a top priority under
the second Trump administration.
Published Monday without a listed author, the report
says Cuba is the “capital of 21st century communism,” ideologically
immovable, and a permanent enemy committed to the destruction not just
of the U.S. but also of “Western civilization” through the spread of
“Third Worldism.”
If that sounds like a throwback to the
long-settled Cold War, that’s because it is — something critics of the
report in Congress seized upon.
Whatever truths the report contains,
they’re largely overshadowed by a feverish paranoia about the alleged
reach of Cuban intelligence into American civil society, according to
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., days after returning from a fact-finding trip to Cuba.
“It may be the stupidest, most fantastical, most biased thing I’ve ever read from a governmental agency,” Pocan said
in a statement Tuesday. “This report focuses on the 1960s & 70s
with no clear connection to today. Yet somehow, the State Department
uses this report to say that this impoverished nation is responsible for
everything from Black Lives Matter to Antifa, the anti-ICE protests and
more.”
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., who went on
the fact-finding mission with Pocan, said the report was aimed at
manufacturing consent for an invasion of the island — and to crack down
on dissent at home.
“While criticizing the regime in Cuba, it instead attacks Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly.”
“This report was intentionally designed to
instill fear of the Cuban people and to justify a military attack on
Cuba,” Ramirez told The Intercept. “It’s hypocrisy at its finest,
because while criticizing the regime in Cuba, it instead attacks
Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly.”
In sketching a broad, anti-American
conspiracy in nearly dozens of left-wing social movements,
organizations, and educational institutions, the report also functions
as a broadside on civil society in the U.S — and hardly for the first
time.
“Cuba is not a new cudgel,” said Miriam
Pensack, a historian at Princeton University specializing in Latin
America and the Caribbean. “The Cuban revolution was a galvanizing event
for the way that the United States thought about its national security,
really until the end of the Cold War. And it still has an ideological
utility, even as the country is limping along.”
Center of Global Conspiracy
Running 100 pages, the report lays out
what its authors describe as a decadeslong effort by Cuba to foment
revolutionary movements throughout the world and to build a latter-day
“axis of evil” by allying with other governments opposed to U.S.
interests, including the current-day governments of Iran, Russia, China,
and North Korea.
“Even as it expands and revitalizes its
network within the next generation of American left-wing activists, it
has also forged new partnerships — or deepened and repurposed old ones —
with other foreign governments and movements around the world,” the
report warns. “The regime continues to act as a force multiplier for a
much broader anti-American coalition, positioning itself as a staging
ground for a wide range of foreign adversaries to conduct operations
against the United States.”
Cuba, the authors allege, is “less a
nation-state than an all-encompassing intelligence and subversion
operation, focused around its existential revolution against the United
States.”
The report goes on to list a slew of
left-wing groups and individuals as accomplices, both witting and
unwitting, of this intelligence operation, including the Democratic
Socialists of America, Code Pink, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and
leftwing streamer Hasan Piker.
In a section stretching nearly five full pages on the National Lawyers Guild, a long-standing right-wing bugaboo,
the report’s authors describe the venerable progressive law association
as “one of the most persistently relevant — and insidious —
organizations in Cuba’s U.S. network.”
Posting to X for the first time since March, the organization quipped, “We have been called much worse, by much better.”
Academic Freedom at Home
The report took aim at universities in the
U.S. for maintaining exchange programs and partnerships with Cuban
universities, implying that such programs functioned as a feeding ground
for Cuban agents looking to recruit spies and fellow travelers.
The report singled out Harvard University, pointing to trips by faculty to Cuba as recently as 2017.
The Cuban government “would probably argue
that it was U.S. universities that were trying to penetrate Cuban
institutions and to foment subversion there!”
If anything, however, the Cuban government
has been wary of exchange programs with American schools, according to
Alejandro de la Fuente, a professor of Latin American history and
economics at Harvard who chairs the university’s Cuba Studies Program
and took part in a trip to Cuba in 2017 that is mentioned in the report.
“They did their best to delimit those
exchanges as much as possible because they understood that knowledge
production requires freedom and a plurality of viewpoints — precisely
what they do not allow,” de la Fuente told The Intercept in an email
Wednesday. “Indeed, they would probably argue that it was U.S.
universities that were trying to penetrate Cuban institutions and to
foment subversion there!”
Born in Cuba, De la Fuente is hardly an
apologist for the Cuban government, at whose feet he laid the blame for
the country’s collapse. He acknowledged that Cuban intelligence may have
targeted American students and academics in the past, but scoffed at
the underlying thesis of the report that Cuba continues to pose a grave
threat to the U.S.
“The ineptitude and corruption of the
regime have destroyed the country’s economy and society, to the point
that the very existence of the nation is in danger,” de la Fuente said.
“Can a country like this pose a threat to the national security of the
United States today? The answer, any reasonable observer would agree, is
emphatically no.”
“War on the Cuban People”
Cuba has made no secret of its support for revolutionary movements throughout the 20th century. And it was a vital partner to left-wing governments in Latin America in the 21st century.
With Cuba today crippled by sanctions and
fuel shortages, however, Ramirez, the member of Congress, said the
report’s notion of the country as a central node in some threatening
conspiracy was a “fiction.”
Accusations about Cuba’s extensive reach
into protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
antifascist organizing, and Black Lives Matter don’t square with the
reality of the severe crisis that has gripped Cuba. In early January,
the Trump administration tightened its embargo of the country into a
virtual blockade on all fuel arriving in Cuba.
Already weakened by internal tensions and
by decades of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., the island nation
has in recent months been plunged into repeated, extended blackouts;
its tourism-dependent economy has effectively collapsed; and its
citizens face a daily question of where to find their next meal.
Her voice on the verge of tears as she
described the humanitarian crisis she witnessed on the island, Ramirez
forcefully rejected the notion that the U.S. has anything to fear from
Cuba.
“Under no circumstances, at any moment
during my trip, did I see anything to make me believe that Cuba poses an
existential threat to the United States,” Ramirez said. “On the
contrary, what I witnessed was a war on the Cuban people by the United
States, and specifically by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.”
Sen.
Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, left, gestures as President Donald
Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One, Jan. 4,
2026, as they were returning to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. [AP
Photo/Alex Brandon]
The official funeral of the late Senator
Lindsey Graham, held Tuesday at the National Cathedral in Washington
D.C., was a spectacle of reaction that underscores certain fundamental
truths about American and world politics.
First, American imperialism is irrevocably
committed to a global policy of militarism, seeking to use its military
power in a desperate effort to maintain its dominant world position
despite decades of economic decline.
Graham was one of the most persistent and
aggressive supporters of American military operations around the world,
summed up in Trump’s statement, in the course of his tribute to Graham,
that “he was truly hawkish; he never saw a war he didn’t like.”
This was not an offhand or joking remark,
as Trump read out an obviously scripted tribute, filled with mawkish
language crafted by his speechwriters. Trump praised Graham’s record in
the Senate, pushing through record military spending, huge tax cuts for
the wealthy and the Supreme Court nomination of reactionary Justice
Brett Kavanaugh. But his main focus was on Graham’s advocacy of the use
of American military power.
Second, on the twin fronts of Ukraine and
Iran, American imperialism is in the initial stages of a world war
targeting not only Russia and Iran but ultimately China, perceived by
all factions of the US ruling elite as its most dangerous economic and
military rival. The merging of these two fronts was signaled this week
by the Ukrainian attack on an Iranian cargo vessel in the Caspian Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
justified the attack by describing Iran as an active participant in the
war between Ukraine and Russia, because it has supplied Russia with
combat drones. By that logic, every NATO country could be targeted by
Moscow for air strikes, since they have sent the weapons and supplies
used by Ukraine to bomb Russian oil refineries, military installations
and urban centers.
Both Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington to attend Graham’s funeral.
Each met separately with Trump on Tuesday morning before the ceremony,
making their pitches for stepped-up US military support for the US-NATO
war against Russia and the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Third, the most reactionary forces in
American society are being mobilized behind the program of war abroad
and dictatorship at home. Trump was followed to the rostrum of the
funeral service by Sean Hannity, the fascist commentator from Fox News;
Tony Perkins, president of the fundamentalist Family Research Council;
Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the fanatical anti-abortion group
Pro-Life America; and evangelical minister Franklin Graham, son of
evangelist Billy Graham.
The entire ceremony was saturated with
fundamentalist Christian religion, not only in the remarks of the
speakers and the reading of Bible verses, but in the emphasis on Lindsey
Graham’s personal adherence to “scripture,” as Trump put it, another
unfamiliar word put in his mouth by speechwriters. It is well known that
Trump’s bedtime reading is not the Bible but a volume of the collected
speeches of Adolf Hitler.
Fourth, the program of global war against
the rivals of American capitalism has the unstinting support of the
Democratic Party. Leading Democrats paid tribute to Graham during a
ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda before the funeral service. Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sat in the front row and helped lay a
wreath, and other Democrats were seen touching the casket in a gesture
of affection.
All 100 senators were invited to meet
separately with Zelensky, in a show of support for the war against
Russia. Leaders of both parties announced agreement to pass bipartisan
legislation imposing even more sweeping sanctions on Russia—with a few
additional sanctions on Iran to ensure Trump’s support. The first test
vote was to be held Tuesday evening.
“We are proud to announce an agreement on
legislation to stop purchasers of Russian oil and gas from fueling
Putin’s war machine and to continue restricting the Iranian regime’s
ability to support terrorism and build its nuclear program,” a
bipartisan statement said. “There is no greater way to honor Senator
Graham’s legacy than to move forward with this bipartisan agreement, and
we look forward to today’s vote.”
The statement was issued by Republican
senators Darline Graham of South Carolina (Lindsey Graham’s sister and
appointed successor), Jim Risch of Idaho, Roger Wicker of Mississippi
and Katie Britt of Alabama, and Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal
of Connecticut and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Blumenthal said he
had worked with Graham for more than a year to win support for the bill.
The legislation would impose heavy
penalties on countries that purchase Russian oil, including China and
India, which are among the largest customers, although Trump will have
the power to waive sanctions on US allies like India and impose them
only on China if he cites “national security” reasons.
Fifth, there is the role of the corporate
media, which treated the event at the National Cathedral with the
greatest respect. Fox News, of course, broadcast the entire proceeding
live. All the evening television news programs gave prominent coverage,
while being careful not to focus on Trump’s declaration of Graham’s love
for war. NBC, for example, did not even mention it.
The day began on a note of farce, courtesy of the Washington Post,which under owner Jeff Bezos is an open ally of the Trump administration. The Tuesday edition of the Post carried
an op-ed column claiming that Graham was “beloved by the Iranian
people,” under the byline of Reza Pahlavi, identified by the newspaper
only as “a leader of the Iranian democratic opposition.” Actually,
Pahlavi is the son of the late Shah, whose bloodstained police-state
regime was overthrown in 1979 by one of the great mass popular uprisings
in history. He is no more a “democrat” than Graham was a “man of
peace,” as he was described by Sean Hannity at the National Cathedral.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the
Graham funeral, however, was the enormous security cordon around
the event. The National Cathedral audience was carefully vetted,
surrounded by Secret Service agents and other police, to ensure that no
one seeking to speak the truth about Graham’s record as an advocate of
militarism and an apologist for mass murder—including the Israeli
genocide in Gaza—could get within miles of the ceremony.
The denizens of official Washington,
Democrats as well as Republicans, live in constant fear of the American
population. Their main concern is that the program of world war,
requiring massive attacks on the living standards and democratic rights
of the American working class, is leading to an explosion of the class
struggle in America. They are right to be afraid.
Amnesty said its ‘conservative’
methodology meant it was likely underestimating the true extent of
India’s contribution to Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, attend a press conference in
Jerusalem, on 26 February 2026 (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP)
Published date: 30 July 2026 00:01 BST | Last update:14 mins 57 secs ago
Indian
state-owned and private companies shipped at least 2,596 consignments
comprising hundreds of thousands of arms, ammunition and military
components to Israel during the genocide in Gaza, a new Amnesty International report has revealed.
The
shipments, sent between 7 October 2023 and 30 November 2025, included
machine-gun components, 155 mm high-explosive artillery shells supplied
to Elbit Systems, explosive warheads for the SkyStriker “kamikaze”
drones – similar to those discovered amid the ruins in Khan Younis – and
armoured vehicle components destined for major suppliers to the Israeli
military.
According to Amnesty, these amounted to
564,970 parts of explosive ordnance (drone warheads, artillery shell
casings and others), 390,516 small arms parts for military-grade
weapons, and 298 components of military vehicles to large Israeli
companies that supplied the Israeli armed forces.
As of 29 July 2026, at least 247,387
Palestinians have been either killed or injured since Israel launched
its military campaign in Gaza, following the Hamas-led attacks on
southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The report, “Made in India:
The Supply of Weapons and Ammunition to Israel”, published on Thursday,
said its findings were “based on a deliberately conservative
methodology”, and were likely to underestimate the “true extent of
India’s contribution to Israel’s military supply chain”.
Rising Indian complicity
The report is the latest in a series
alleging that India has materially supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza,
following earlier allegations that New Delhi supplied combat drones, bombs and weapons components to Israel after October 2023.
In
May, the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
movement and No Harbour for Genocide warned of a “flood” of military
supplies from India to Israel.
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“Israel has a huge domestic production,
but they rely on specific components, whether it’s like high-end
technology material for aerospace or bulk materials such as military
steel,” a spokesperson for No Harbour for Genocide told Middle East Eye at the time.
Likewise, an Al Jazeera investigation based
on Israeli Tax Authority import data found that India was the
second-largest exporter of military-related goods to Israel between
October 2023 and October 2025.
Israeli army reservist ‘flees’ India after war crimes allegation filed
Al Jazeera noted the data likely
represented only a partial picture of total arms transfers to Israel and
did not establish the end use of the shipments in Gaza.
Likewise, Amnesty’s investigators based
their analysis on shipments classified under specific Harmonized System
(HS) codes, the internationally used customs classification system for
traded goods.
These included HS codes 9301–9307, which cover
weapons, ammunition and their parts and accessories; and HS code 8710,
which covers armoured and fighting vehicles and their components.
Researchers excluded shipments labelled
only with internal product or part numbers, where it was not possible to
determine whether the items were military or civilian.
It also
excluded hundreds of shipments of dual-use small-arms components, as
well as weapons, parts and ammunition likely intended for anti-missile
defence systems.
Amnesty said its deliberately conservative
methodology meant its findings were likely to underestimate the true
extent of India’s contribution to Israel’s military supply chain.
Nonetheless,
its findings revealed there were several companies, including
state-owned ventures, involved in supplying military aid to Israel.
It said it wrote to nine companies as well as the Indian state but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
“In light of the International Court of
Justice’s provisional measures orders recognizing a plausible risk of
genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the Indian authorities cannot
credibly argue that they did not know that continuing to authorize and
facilitate arms transfers to Israel carries a substantial risk of
contributing to serious violations of international law,” Agnes
Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said in a statement.
Callamard added that while the Israeli
military continued to inflict death and suffering in Gaza, “Indian
companies continued to profit by supplying components and munitions
destined for Israel’s defence sector.”
India-Israel defence ties
India-Israel ties have accelerated over
the past decade under the leadership of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi
and Benjamin Netanyahu.
India is the world’s largest purchaser of
Israeli weapons, and several Israeli arms manufacturers have established
production facilities in the country through joint ventures with Indian
companies.
Earlier this year, during Modi’s visit to Israel, the two countries upgraded ties to a Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation and Prosperity.
The relationship has since expanded
further, with a series of new memorandums of understanding and reports
of potential defence partnerships, including discussions over India manufacturing Iron Dome interceptor missiles for Israel.
Israel to install statue of Indian Maratha king as gesture of friendship
Diplomatically, the Indian government has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters.
New Delhi has refused to join South
Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice,
which alleges violations of the Genocide Convention, and has rejected
calls to impose an arms embargo on Israel.
It has also cracked down on pro-Palestine protests and activism within India.
When
Indian civil society groups petitioned the Supreme Court in September
2024 to halt arms exports, the court dismissed the case, ruling that
decisions on foreign policy fall within the government’s domain, not the
judiciary.
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has also maintained that India’s arms exports are guided by the country’s “national interest”.
“The issue of India’s exports, including
India’s exports of anything which directly or indirectly has any
military implications, is guided by our national interest and by our
commitments to various regimes,” Jaishankar said in December 2024.
“Where Israel is concerned, it is a
country with which we have a strong record of cooperation in national
security. It is also a country that has stood by us at different moments
when our national security was under threat,” he added.
![General view of the US Embassy in Amman, Jordan on March 02, 2026. [Screengrab/AA]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260303_3_73208961_122832058_poster-1-1-1.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
(Photo credit: Israel Defense Forces)
