Despite claims to the contrary, the Italian government has facilitated military shipments to Israel throughout its genocide in the Gaza Strip. Since October 2023, “Italy has maintained a strategic and continuous pipeline of military hardware and energy resources to Israel, directly facilitating the technical infrastructure of the assault,” states a new report from the People’s Embargo for Palestine.
The report documented 416 military-related shipments, as well as over 200 kilotons of fuel transferred from Italy to Israel in this period. These findings stand in stark contrast to Italy’s obligations under national and international law – “with downstream implications also suggesting an Italian role in the current war on Iran” – and illustrate the lengths Giorgia Meloni’s government went to mislead the public about its true support for Israel.
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One of the report’s key findings is that the state was directly involved in such transfers not only through deployment of military materials through its defense forces and companies like Leonardo, where it is majority shareholder, or by contributing parts for military equipment assembled in third countries and sent to Israel, but also by maintaining trade and investment connections with occupation powers in the field of military and related technologies.
“The findings of this report irrefutably demonstrate that Italy’s military-industrial complex is an integral part of the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the analysis states. Among the products delivered to Israel are aircraft components – including those used in F-15 fighter jets flown in the bombardment of Gaza – containers, antennas, bulletproof vests, and weapons. Some of these were facilitated directly by institutions like police and military forces.
In addition to these deadly supplies, Italian authorities have allowed Israel to receive fuel to run armored vehicles in Gaza and provide energy to illegal settlements, adding another dimension to their support for the occupation entity.
Notably, civilian infrastructure, including major airports in Milan and Rome and ports in Genoa and Ravenna, has been repeatedly used to directly or indirectly support Israel’s onslaught – even as millions of Italians went on strike in solidarity with Gaza. The report also describes attempts to conceal the true content or destination of shipments, making their already obscure itinerary more difficult to follow.
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Another form of government complicity has emerged through growing imports and trade relations between Italy and Israel. According to the report, military imports from Israel to Italy in 2024 represented over 20% of the total (valued at nearly €155 million), compared to 2.5% the previous year. “The relationship is circular: Italian components, maintenance, and other inputs feed Israeli production lines; Israeli systems are field-tested in Gaza, increasing their export value and enabling economies of scale; and the profits, contracts, and commercial ties generated through this trade flow back into expanding the very military industries with which Italy continues to do business.”
“Without foreign investment and support, Israel could not continue its campaign of genocide, expansion, and war,” the report emphasizes. “Italy is not external to Israel’s genocidal war-making capacity. Italian companies, state-linked entities, ports, airports, freight carriers and energy infrastructure have all helped sustain it.”
“To continue this trade is to remain complicit in the systematic eradication of the Palestinian people, and in Israel’s aggressive assaults in the West Bank, Iran, and across the region,” the People’s Embargo for Palestine concludes. “What is required now is sustained strategic action capable of imposing real political and material costs on the war machine, and clear changes enacted by the Italian government.”
As labor unions and progressive movements in Italy remain alert and involved in different acts of international solidarity, the report calls on them to mobilize and demand that the government, among other things, impose a meaningful arms embargo on Israel, cancel ongoing technical assistance agreements and export permits, and terminate fuel supplies to occupation authorities. “Italy must take direct responsibility for the weapons logistics chain operating on its soil,” the report states.
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