Amnesty says India risks complicity by arming Israel’s war on Gaza

ISLAMABAD: Amnesty International said in a new investigation that India continued supplying weapons, ammunition and military components to Israel throughout the Gaza war, warning that the exports expose New Delhi to the risk of complicity in Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the enclave.

In a report titled “Made in India: The Supply of Weapons and Ammunition to Israel,” released this week, the rights organization said it identified 2,596 shipments of small arms, ammunition, military vehicle components and other military-related items exported from India to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.

Amnesty said its investigation relied on shipment-level trade records, customs data and corporate information, and described its methodology as deliberately conservative.

"Our research reveals India's continuing support to the Israeli military and defense sector despite the genocide in Gaza, which has been broadcast worldwide on an almost daily basis for years," Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said.

"The Indian government must immediately stop authorizing exports of weapons, ammunition and parts to Israel," she added.

The report argues that India has evolved from being one of Israel's largest arms customers into an increasingly important supplier to Israel's defense industry through exports of ammunition, explosives, weapons parts and dual-use components.

It said several Indian companies, including state-owned enterprises, continued supplying Israeli defense firms long after international warnings over alleged war crimes and genocide risks in Gaza had intensified.

The report says Amnesty investigators identified shipments involving more than 390,000 small-arms parts and over 560,000 explosive ordnance components, including drone warheads, artillery shell casings and other military items destined for Israeli defense companies.

Gaza war

Israel's latest large-scale military campaign in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures are regularly cited by the United Nations.

The ministry says the majority of those killed are women and children, while UN Women reported that more than 38,000 women and girls had been killed by the end of 2025 alone.

The humanitarian impact of the war has drawn widespread international scrutiny, with the International Court of Justice ordering provisional measures in South Africa's genocide case against Israel while stopping short of ruling on the merits of the allegations.

Amnesty argues that the ICJ's provisional measures placed governments on notice that continued arms transfers to Israel carried a substantial legal risk.

"In light of the International Court of Justice's provisional measures orders recognizing a plausible risk of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the Indian authorities cannot credibly argue that they did not know that continuing to authorize and facilitate arms transfers to Israel carries a substantial risk of contributing to serious violations of international law," Callamard said.

The organization said it wrote to the Indian government and nine companies named in the report in June and July 2026 outlining its findings but had received no response by the time of publication.

The report builds on earlier investigations by international media and rights organizations that documented continued military trade between India and Israel after the Gaza war began. 

In June 2024, Al Jazeera, citing leaked European trade documents, reported that India exported rockets, explosives and military materials to Israel despite growing international concern over the war. 

Reuters also reported that Israel's defense exports to India, its largest overseas military customer, remained unaffected by the conflict and that Israeli officials had ensured uninterrupted deliveries of weapons and drone components to New Delhi.

Regional conflict

The report comes as Israel's military operations have expanded beyond Gaza over the past three years. 

Since October 2023, Israeli forces have carried out sustained military operations in Gaza, intensified raids across the occupied West Bank, exchanged fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon before launching a broader military campaign there, conducted repeated airstrikes in Syria targeting what it says are Iranian-linked military assets, and carried out strikes against Iran during periods of heightened regional escalation.

India's growing defense partnership with Israel has also drawn attention closer to home.

During the May 2025 Pakistan-India conflict, Islamabad said India deployed Israeli-made IAI Harop loitering munitions against targets inside Pakistan and announced that its armed forces had intercepted dozens of the drones. 

The episode underscored the depth of military cooperation between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, with Israeli-origin platforms featuring prominently in India's arsenal.

Amnesty's report does not examine India's use of Israeli weapons during the Pakistan conflict. 

Instead, it focuses on India's role as a supplier to Israel's military industry and argues that governments have a legal obligation to suspend arms transfers where there is a substantial risk they could facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The organization called on India to halt weapons exports to Israel immediately, ensure companies under its jurisdiction do not contribute to crimes under international law, and investigate whether corporate actors knowingly supplied military goods despite the risk they could be used in unlawful attacks.