The US supplied the lion’s share (52%). The West’s biggest buyers were its allies Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia — Qatar boosted imports 396 percent in the past four years, becoming the world’s third-largest arms buyer.

Israel was the world’s 15th-biggest importer.

And “the US accounted for 69 percent and Germany for 30 percent of arms imports by Israel,” Sipri said.

The fresh data came out amid Israel’s mass-killing of Palestinians in the Gaza war, which saw calls for an Israel arms-embargo by humanitarian groups, activists, and protesters in several EU states.

The US supplies ammunition and combat aircraft being used by Israel in Gaza.

Germany’s biggest deal involved four submarines, but Israel has also requested to buy 10,000 German tank shells since the Gaza war began on 7 October 2023.

“At the end of 2023, the US rapidly delivered thousands of guided bombs and missiles to Israel,” Sipri said.

“Major arms imported [by Middle East buyers] in the past 10 years have been used widely in conflicts in the region, including in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen”, Sipri researcher Zain Hussain also said.

“Some states in the Gulf region have imported large volumes of arms … to counter Iranian influence,” he added.

And if the Gaza war escalated, dragging Lebanon and Iran into fighting with Israel and the US, Sweden’s Sipri indicated that Iran would be out-gunned.

“Iran’s arms imports have been at a very low level relative to those of other arms importers in the Gulf region since around 1993,” it said.

“In 2023 Iran placed by far its largest import order for major arms in 20 years, for 24 combat aircraft from Russia,” it added, however.

Meanwhile, according to the latest EU figures on the subject consulted by EUobserver, France, Romania, the Czech Republic, Italy, and the Netherlands were also top exporters to Israel.

The Czechs, Germany, and Slovakia granted export licences for over €10m of “ammunition” to Israel in 2022, the EU report said.

Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal granted Israel-export licences for €23m of “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles”, the EU said.

“Israel can’t fight this war without Western missiles and artillery shells,” Robert Baer, a US expert on Middle East security, previously told EUobserver.

And going back to Sipri’s study, Israel also came out as the world’s ninth-biggest arms exporter — showing another facet of EU-Israeli defence ties.

Israel’s order books for deliveries after 2023 included dozens of air-defence systems, armoured vehicles, artillery, and combat aircraft, Sipri said on Monday.

“Germany ordered a single but particularly high-value [air-defence] system from Israel [in 2023]”, Sipri said.

Finland and Slovakia also ordered Israeli air-defence systems in 2022-2023, the think-tank said.

Russia’s war

The Swedish spotlight on arms sales comes two years after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russian arms exports nosedived by 53 percent between 2019 and 2023 due to world reactions to its aggression, Sipri showed.

Russia sold arms to 31 states in 2019, but just 12 in 2023 and most of these were in the Far East, Sipri said.

The trends helped France to boost its weapons sales by 47 percent in the same time-frame, replacing Russia as the world’s second-biggest arms exporter.

Italy also boosted sales by 86 percent, clocking in as the world’s sixth largest.

But the US remained leagues ahead in first place, boosting its share of the world market to 42 percent from 34 percent.

America also grew its share of the European defence import-market to 55 percent from 35 percent in the past four years, Sipri showed.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the main driver behind a 94 percent surge in European arms purchases, the think-tank said.

“With many high-value arms on order—including nearly 800 combat aircraft and combat helicopters— European arms imports are likely to remain at a high level,” said Sipri expert Pieter Wezeman.

“In the past two years we have also seen much greater demand for air defence systems in Europe, spurred on by Russia’s missile campaign against Ukraine,” he said.

EU summit

For their part, EU leaders will discuss the Gaza and Ukraine wars at a summit in Brussels on 21 March.

An internal EU document on “draft guidelines for the [summit] conclusions” seen by EUobserver on Friday (8 March) made no mention of sanctions against Israel, whether on arms purchases or any other areas.

EU leaders also planned to keep arming Ukraine, saying it “urgently needs air-defence systems, ammunition, and missiles”.

The EU-summit guidelines called for a “humanitarian pause” in Gaza, even as Israel prepared to invade Rafah in southern Gaza, risking sky-high civilian casualties.

The EU memo voiced “condemnation” of Palestinian group Hamas, which killed 1,200 Israelis and captured 250 hostages on 7 October.

It didn’t condemn Israel, which has killed over 31,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women.

“The final summit conclusions [endorsed by EU leaders] are likely to be much tougher on Israel,” an EU diplomat said on Friday.