Discover how Indian-made weapons are quietly making their way to Israel amid the Gaza conflict, sparking controversy and raising questions about India’s stance on international conflicts. A cargo ship, loaded with explosives reportedly from India, was tracked heading towards Israel, bypassing usual routes to avoid conflict zones. This revelation comes amidst protests in Spain over suspected arms shipments to Israel, highlighting secretive international dealings and their implications for global diplomacy. As tensions escalate, uncover the hidden connections shaping conflicts thousands of miles away.
The cargo tanker Borkum came to a halt off the Spanish coast early on May 15, loitering in waters not far from Cartagena. Protesters at the port brandished Palestinian flags and demanded that officials investigate the ship, which they suspected was carrying weapons heading for Israel.
Leftist members of the European Parliament wrote to Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, urging that the ship be barred from docking. “Allowing a ship loaded with weapons destined for Israel is to allow the transit of arms to a country currently under investigation for genocide against the Palestinian people,” nine members of the European Parliament said.
Before the Spanish government could respond, the Borkum abandoned its planned layover and proceeded to the Slovenian port of Koper. “We were right,” Inigo Errejon, a spokeswoman for the hard-left Sumar party, said on X, claiming that the Borkum’s choice to miss Cartagena verified his fears.
The Borkum’s cargo’s odd origins, however, were overlooked in the discussion over whether the ship should be permitted to dock in Spain.
According to documents obtained by Al Jazeera, the ship was filled with explosives in India and was on its way to Israel’s port of Ashdod, which is around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Gaza. Marine tracking sites suggest it left Chennai, southeast India, on April 2 and circumnavigated Africa to avoid passing through the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthis have been assaulting warships in retaliation for Israel’s conflict.
The identification codes specified in the documentation, obtained unofficially by the Solidarity Network Against the Palestinian Occupation (RESCOP), indicate that the Borkum contained 20 tonnes of rocket engines, 12.5 tonnes of rockets with explosive charges, 1,500kg (3,300 pounds) of explosive substances, and 740kg (1,630 pounds) of cannon charges and propellant.
A secrecy clause required all employees, consultants, and other relevant parties to “under no circumstances” mention IMI Systems or Israel. Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons maker, acquired IMI Systems, a defense corporation, in 2018.
MLB Manfred Lauterjung Befrachtung, the ship’s business manager, told Al Jazeera in a statement that “the vessel did not load any weapons or any other cargo for the destination Israel”.
On May 21, a second cargo ship that had left India was denied access to the port of Cartagena. According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Marianne Danica left India’s port of Chennai and was on her way to Israel’s port of Haifa with a cargo of 27 tons of explosives. Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares announced in a press conference that the vessel was denied admission because it was transporting military supplies to Israel.
These occurrences add to accumulating evidence that weapon parts from India, a country that has always campaigned for diplomacy rather than military action in conflict resolution, are surreptitiously making their way to Israel, particularly during the ongoing months-long war in Gaza. A lack of transparency regarding India’s transfers helps them slip under the radar, say analysts.
According to Zain Hussain, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), “the lack of verifiable information makes it hard to determine whether transfers have taken place”.
Furthermore, “collaboration between India and Israel has been happening for quite a few years now”, added Hussain, so “it’s not unfeasible that we may see some made-in-India components being used by Israel [in its war on Gaza]”.
‘Made in India’
On June 6, following Israel’s bombing of a United Nations shelter in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, the Quds News Network posted a video of the remains of a missile dropped by Israeli jets.
A label reading “Made in India” stood out among the jumbled bits.
Hussain, who studies the transfer of conventional arms at the Stockholm-based think tank, said the video needed more investigation, but he noted that a large portion of India-Israel collaboration is known to revolve around missile production, specifically the Barak surface-to-air missile.
According to SIPRI, the Indian company Premier Explosives Limited manufactures solid propellants for MRSAM and LRSAM missiles, which account for a considerable portion of the rocket motors but not the entire motor. These are the Indian designations for Barak medium and long-range surface-to-air missiles designed by Israel.
During a conference call on March 31, T Chowdary, the company’s executive director, admitted to shipping to Israel despite the ongoing conflict in Gaza. “We have received the pending revenue from the Israel export order, and this has shown an exponential jump in the revenue of the quarter,” he told investors, according to meeting minutes. “We are happy to announce that we have the highest ever quarterly revenue.”
On that day, Chowdary introduced Premier Explosives Limited as “the only Indian company that specializes in the export of fully assembled rocket motors.” In addition, he stated that the company has begun manufacturing mines and ammunition, as well as exporting RDX and HMX explosives, which are commonly employed in military weapons systems.
In its January 2024 overview, the company identified exports to Israel in the “defense & space” sector, which SIPRI assumed would comprise propellants for Barak rockets.
Premier Explosives has not responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.
According to SIPRI, Indian components can be used in Barak missiles, which are then reexported by Israel.
Indian made UAVs
However, India’s relationship with Israel extends far beyond rocket propellers.
In December 2018, Adani Defence & Aerospace, the defense branch of Indian multinational holding company Adani Enterprises Ltd, and Israel’s Elbit Systems opened the Adani Elbit Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Complex (UAV) in Hyderabad.
The facility was described in a joint release as “the first outside Israel to manufacture the Hermes 900 Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV,” which can fly for up to 36 hours at 30,000 feet (9,000 meters).
“The factory shall start operations with the manufacturing of complete carbon composite aero-structures for Hermes 900, followed by Hermes 450,” said a statement. According to the drone inventory of the UK’s foremost defense think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), both drones can be equipped with antitank-guided missiles.
“The production of Hermes drones is as important for India as it is for Israel,” SIPRI’s Hussain stated. “For Israel, it implies they have a factory outside of their country. For India, it is about technology transfer so that it can develop drones similar to the Israeli model.”
Earlier this year, India unveiled its first domestic medium-altitude long-endurance drone, the Drishti 10 Starliner, based on the Hermes model.
According to SIPRI, the facility is actively constructing UAVs, including those for shipment to Israel, but India has not divulged any details concerning the transfer.
Israel is acknowledged to be routinely utilizing drones in its bombardment on Gaza, which has killed over 37,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children. In November, following Hamas’ strike on October 7, Elbit deputy CEO Joseph Gaspar stated that the corporation had been working “round the clock” to meet demand from Israel’s military.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other organizations have also reported the use of Hermes drones in prior Gaza wars. Earlier this month, Hezbollah forces claimed to have shot down an armed Hermes 900 drone in Lebanon’s airspace. Since October, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed over 400 individuals, including more than 70 civilians.
“If we see Hermes drones being used in Gaza, they’re not necessarily coming from India,” SIPRI’s Hussein added, noting that Israel also produces them in-house. However, he would not rule out the likelihood that India has begun exporting the drones in accordance with the conditions of the agreement and that they are now being deployed against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.
Elbit Systems has not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. The Adani Group, which includes Adani Defence & Aerospace, informed Al Jazeera in a statement that it exported a modest number of UAVs for non-combat purposes.
“We reiterate that these drones are built for surveillance and reconnaissance and cannot be used for attack roles,” according to the statement. “We categorically deny having exported any UAVs to Israel since October 7, 2023.”
India’s balancing act
India has traditionally sought to strike a delicate balance in its relationship with Israel. New Delhi has attempted to position itself as a conciliatory actor and potential mediator in the Gaza crisis, advocating for peace and backing calls for a cease-fire while also demanding that Hamas return detainees currently held there.
More broadly, Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of Foreign Affairs S Jaishankar, and the country’s UN ambassadors, have constantly stated that diplomacy and agreements, rather than war, are the only ways to settle crises. That has been India’s formal stand about Russia’s war on Ukraine and Israel’s attack on Gaza.
“But reports that it is supplying Israel with weapons could disrupt that narrative,” Nicolas Blarel, author of The Evolution of India’s Israel Policy, stated.
India recognized the state of Israel in 1950, only two years after its inception, but full diplomatic relations were established in 1992, following decades of non-aligned and pro-Arab politics. It recognized the State of Palestine in 1988 after becoming the first non-Arab country to accept the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974.
Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was famously referred to as the “sister” of PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
In the 1990s, as the Cold War ended and Arafat met with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in a series of discussions that resulted in the Oslo Accords, India began to consider cooperating with Israel.
“That accelerated in 1999, with the war between India and Pakistan,” Blarel, who teaches International Relations at Leiden University in the Netherlands, explained. “Most countries refused to sell weapons to both countries, except most notably Israel.”
Since then, Israel has been willing to engage India in technology transfer to a greater level than any other partner, giving know-how on drones, electric sensors for border control, and other surveillance technologies critical to India along its sensitive borders with Pakistan and China, Blarel added.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of the Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), strayed farther from the country’s longstanding pro-Palestinian stance after being elected in 2014.
Modi made a more public embrace of Israel, becoming the first prime minister to visit the country in 2017. The visit resulted in a strategic collaboration in sectors such as space and technology, which softened India’s stance on Israel to a “case-by-case approach” in which India’s position was no longer guaranteed to support that of Palestinians, according to Blarel.
Modi has since referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “friend”.
A similar strategy is used to this day. On October 26, weeks after the Hamas attack and the start of Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, India abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling for an “immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that Indians were “big victims of terrorism” and so sympathetic to Israel. Jaishankar stated that the resolution, although echoing Israel’s position, lacked an “explicit condemnation” of the Hamas attack that killed 1,139 Israelis.
India later voted in favor of a UNGA resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but refrained from voting in April on a resolution endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council calling for a weapons embargo on Israel in addition to the Gaza ceasefire.
Earlier this month, India joined other BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates – in drafting a statement expressing “grave concern” over the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and urging an urgent ceasefire.
“India sometimes sees the UN resolutions as being too strict, because it has a good relationship with Israel, but sometimes sides with Palestinians” as it attempts to present itself as a champion of poor nations against stiff rivalry with China for that role, Blarel said.
While “Modi would support a more public embrace of Israel,” the expert stated, he has also engaged in developing strategic ties with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), India’s major regional trading partner.
Modi’s ruling BJP lost its majority in India’s lower house of parliament earlier this month, forcing it to rely on coalition allies to remain in office for the first time since taking power a decade ago. Blarel stated that the BJP must prioritize “good diplomatic relationships with all actors in the Middle East.”
Recently, GreatGameIndia reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the destruction of Gaza’s main border crossing with Egypt, Rafah. Brigade 401 took control of the crossing overnight, rendering it unusable.
Support GreatGameIndia
