By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli's defense exports reached $13 billion in 2023, a new record, even amid the widely condemned war on Gaza, according to official data released on Monday.
Missile and air defense systems accounted for 36% of the total, said the Israeli Defense Ministry, followed by radar and electronic warfare (11%), weapon stations and launchers (11%), manned aircraft and avionics (9%), ammunition and arms (8%), surveillance and electronics (5%), armored vehicles and troop carriers (5%), intelligence and cyber systems (4%), unmanned aerial vehicles (4%), communication systems (4%), satellites and space systems (2%), and naval systems (1%).
Nearly half of the exports went to the Asia-Pacific region with 48%, followed by Europe with 35%, North America with 9%, Latin America with 4%, the Abraham Accord countries (the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain) with 3%, and Africa with 1%.
As for the export deals’ financial value, 40% of the contracts were valued at over $100 million, 17% at $50-100 million, 23% up to $50 million, and 20% up to $10 million, it said.
The Defense Ministry’s Eyal Zamir and Yair Kulas, director of international defense cooperation, announced the record-breaking figure of $13.07 billion for defense exports in 2023.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Israel continues to succeed in its international cooperation and industrial defense exports even during a year marked by the Gaza war.”
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
More than 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio