Italy exported "weapons and ammunition" to Israel after October 7 - foreign trade stats reveal

[This article is the first part of Italian weapons in Gaza, a series of investigations into Italian arms sales to Israel in the context of the ongoing onslaught on the Strip].

Between October and November 2023, Italy exported to Israel "weapons and ammunition" worth €817,536 ($885,964): €233,025 in October and €584,511 in November. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) certified this through its data on foreign trade, which was most recently updated in mid-February 2024. 

Although modest if compared with other contexts, these figures contradict the Italian government led by right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which has repeatedly stated that it has "suspended" and "blocked" the export of weapons to Tel Aviv since 7 October 2023.

On 20 January 2024, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian daily Il Giorno that "Italy has suspended the sending of any type of weapons to Israel since the beginning of the Gaza war. Everything is blocked." He added that "since hostilities began, we have suspended all shipments of weapon systems or military material of any kind."

"Even assuming that the €230,000 orders in October were shipped before the 7th, the November data covers a period when heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip had already commenced."

ISTAT data refutes the minister's first claim of having blocked the shipping of "any type of weapons to Israel": material corresponding to the merchandise category "weapons and ammunition" - according to the Ateco 2007 classification - was indeed exported even after October 7. Even assuming that the €230,000 orders in October were shipped before the 7th, the November data covers a period when heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip had already commenced.

To understand whether Tajani's second assertion is also false, namely regarding the suspension of the export of "military material”, one must delve into the exact nature of what was delivered to Israel.

Italy exported to Israel €584,511 worth of "weapons and ammunition" in November 2023 alone (compared with €1.5 million for the same period in 2022).

According to ISTAT, approximately €7,000 of these sales pertained to "rifles, carbines, and pistols with spring, compressed air or gas, non-lethal and other similar weapons".

€430,000 accounted for "parts and accessories" of items ranging from "warfare weapons, including submachine guns" to "revolvers and pistols", from "firearms and similar devices using gunpowder deflagration" to "rifles and pistols with spring, compressed air or gas, non-lethal."

While €147,126 remained obscured and therefore without specific description.

Giorgio Beretta, an analyst at the Permanent Observatory on Small Arms, told Italian magazine Altreconomia that "these obscured €147,126 certify that they are weapons and ammunition with a military scope: in the subheadings, ISTAT obscures only the data concerning weapons with a military scope.”

The analyst explained that obscured ISTAT data stands for weapons exported to armies, government entities and police forces according to law 185/1990. Beretta clarified that, when data on sales of warfare weapons is accessible, it means that they were exported according to a different law (110/1975) and that, unlike “weapons with a military scope”, they can be sold to civilians.

While being considered “civilians”, Israeli settlers are often able to carry weapons. Since October 7, settlers have escalated their attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, which raises further questions on the implications of arms exports to Israel, regardless of their “military scope”.  

Beretta also noted that “only 'weapons and ammunition' have been considered here, but since October, other materials and tools for military use could have been exported to Israel, including components for aircraft and ground vehicles, electronic systems, laminates, and mixers for chemical products, etc., which cannot be traced in the ISTAT database."

"On 20 January 2024, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian daily Il Giorno that 'Italy has suspended the sending of any type of weapons to Israel since the beginning of the Gaza war. Everything is blocked.'

Since October 7, the Italian government has been ambiguous on the nature of its military exports to Israel. As it had done in mid-January, at the time of our first investigation into the lack of transparency of the UAMA National Authority (the foreign ministry’s Unit for the Authorisations of Armament Materials), the Italian FM deferred us once again to the publication in the spring-summer of the UAMA report. However, this report is issued on an annual basis and will clarify little or nothing about what happened after October 7.

While UAMA refused to disclose data on alleged diplomatic grounds, representatives of the Meloni government (Foreign Minister Tajani and Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, among others) have continued to release inaccurate statements.

Most recently, in late February, despite calls to maintain strict controls and transparency over arms sales abroad, the parliamentary majority approved in the first reading in the Senate a bill amending Law 185 of 1990 entirely to the advantage of the military industry, as denounced by the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament.

This is an edited and abridged translation by Alba Nabulsi. Click here to read the original Italian-language investigation published by Altreconomia magazine on 27 February 2024.

Disclaimer: While The New Arab Investigative Unit independently fact-checked the datasets used in this investigation and expanded its content, all questions should be addressed to its original publisher Altreconomia.