As the world was busy with the failed attack on former US president Donald Trump, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continued the genocide in Gaza by carrying out five different massacres in the region, attacking schools and “safe zones”, killing at least 181 civilians in just one week, making it the most deadly week for Palestinians since October 7th 2023.
Amid these gruesome and reckless massacres, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accepted that the death toll of Palestinian civilians is “unacceptably high.” Since the IDF still continues its reckless attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, Mr Blinken’s futile statement evaporated in the air.
However, it does reiterate questions like who has been supplying arms and ammunition to Israel to conduct these gruesome attacks targeting civilians in schools, residential buildings and mosques in Gaza, accounting for war crimes? Which are among the top companies profiting greatly from this genocide in Gaza? And does Mr Blinken’s ineffective acknowledgement have something to introspect? While the Democrats, including octogenarian US President Joe Biden, strongly advocate for stringent gun control in the country to stop violence, their government has been supplying weapons to one of the most violent regimes in the world.
America’s export of arms to Israel
The US has been the largest weapons exporter to Israel, accounting for 69% of Israel’s arms import between 2019 and 2023, a report on arms and conflicts by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) highlights. The US has rapidly delivered thousands of guided bombs and missiles to Israel at the end of 2023, which have been used by the IDF to carry out brutal attacks on Gaza.
By the end of 2023, the US delivered more than 10,000 tons of weapons, including over 15,000 bombs and 50,000 artillery shells, in 244 cargo planes and 20 ships to Israel. These transfers were made in secrecy to avoid public scrutiny, however, the US government approved over 100 military sales to Israel after the October 7th Hamas attack.
Forum on the Arms Trade, which reports the sale and transfer of arms to Israel since October 7th, underscored that in the latest transfer, on June 28th, the US government exported at least 14,000 MK-84 2000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs and other munitions.
The potential arms transfer on May 14th, of more than $1bn, including tank ammunition worth $700m, tactical vehicles worth $500m and mortar rounds worth $60m, has been criticised by Congress—about which they were only informally notified—for being carried out without transparency and Congressional oversight.
The use of these weapons in the densely populated Gaza Strip by Israel has caused heavy civilian deaths, including children, and caused infrastructural damage hitting residential buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques and churches in the besieged region for the past nine months.
A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) underscores that between October 7th and July 15th, there have been “1,122 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, of which 105 led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries, 898 led to damage to Palestinian property, and 119 led to both casualties and property damage.”
Here are some of the top companies of the US military-industrial complex that are benefitting from the Gaza genocide.
Top American weapon companies profiting from the Gaza genocide
1. Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest manufacturer of weapons. It manufactures and exports F-16 and F-35 fighter jets to Israel which the Israeli Air Force has been extensively using to bomb Gaza since October 7th. The company also manufactures C-130 Hercules transport planes and supplies to Israel which it uses for ground invasion in the Gaza Strip.
AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, one of the main types of weapons for aerial attacks, are manufactured by the company. Nearly 2,000 Hellfire missiles were transported to Israel between October and November last year, which have been used by Israel to attack Gaza. The company was awarded a $10.5m contract on December 28th 2023 for “continued development and integration efforts in support of F-35 system development and design for the government of Israel.”
2. RTX (formerly Raytheon)
RTX is the second-largest weapon manufacturer in the world and the largest producer of guided missiles. It supplies guided air-to-surface missiles to Israel for its F-16 fighter jets, as well as cluster bombs and bunker busters. These heavily destructive bombs have been regularly used in Gaza by the IDF, destroying infrastructure and accounting for heavy civilian casualties. Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of RTX, manufactures engines for F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, which have facilitated extensive aerial assault in the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7th.
3. The Boeing Company
It is the world’s fifth-largest weapons manufacturing company with an annual revenue of $76.44bn. It manufactures F-15 fighter jets and Apache AH-64 attack helicopters. It also manufactures the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits, which convert unguided bombs into guided munitions.
The Boeing Company had hastened the delivery of 1,000 small-diameter bombs (SDBs) and 1,800 JDAM kits to Israel after the October 7th Hamas attack. These have been extensively used by the IDF in airstrikes in Gaza since October, leading to heavy civilian casualties.
These bombs were used in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on November 1st 2023, leaving a giant crater at the site. The bombardment killed at least 195 civilians and injured 777 while hundreds went missing. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk indicated that this could be a war crime.
The IDF used these bombs on October 10th and 22nd in Deir al-Balah in which 24 members of the al-Najjar family and 19 members of the Abu Mu’eileq family were killed, respectively. Amnesty International had called the strikes “unlawful” that could account for war crimes.
Boeing manufactures the 250-pound GBU-39 guidedSDBs which had been used in May by the IDF in bombarding Rafah’s displacement camps. The attack killed at least 45 Palestinian people, including children.
Trevor Ball, a former US Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist identified the bombs from the fragments of the weapon and posted them on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.
4. General Dynamics
General Dynamics is the sixth-largest weapons manufacturer in the world. It supplies artillery munitions and bombs to Israel, which uses them in Gaza extensively. Being the only company in the US to make metal bodies for the MK-80 bomb series, General Dynamics is the primary supplier of aerial munitions to Israel. The company manufactures 500-pound MK-82/BLU-111 bombs, 1000-pound MK-83/BLU-110 bombs and 2000-lbs MK-84/BLU-109 bombs, all used widely by the Israeli Air Force. According to a CNN analysis, Israel has dropped 500 2000-pound MK-84/BLU-109/GBU-31 bombs in the Northern Gaza Strip until November 2023.
Experts say that the explosion of such a bomb in the open means “instant death” for anyone who is within about 30 metres (100 feet), while lethal fragments can extend for nearly 365 metres (1,200 feet).
It was also used in the October 31st IDF strike on the refugee camp in Jabalia, which killed over 100 civilians and could amount to a war crime according to Mr Türk. The US delivered more than 5,000 MK-84 bombs to Israel between October 7th and December 21st 2023. The use of the 155mm artillery shells, which the US has been transporting to Israel, is “virtually assured to be indiscriminate, unlawful, and devastating to civilians in Gaza,” according to Oxfam.
5. BAE Systems
BAE Systems, the world’s seventh-largest manufacturer of weapons, has an annual revenue of $25.7bn. It manufactures the M109 howitzer, a 155mm mobile artillery system, that the IDF has been using extensively. It also manufactures electronic missile launching kits and other components for Israel’s F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets. These have been used by the Israeli Air Force massively in Gaza. Some of these shells are white phosphorus bombs, the use of which is forbidden in densely populated regions and accounts for a war crime.
6. Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman manufactures the Longbow missile delivery system to Israel which it uses for its Apache attack helicopters and laser weapon delivery systems for its fighter jets. The company has delivered Sa’ar 5 warships to the Israeli Navy, with which Israel has carried out attacks on Gaza. In December 2023, the company was awarded an $8.9m contract for 30mm MK44 Stretch cannons “with associated spares, tools, and gauges as a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract under the Foreign Military Sales Program to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.” These guns have been widely used in Gaza in the past nine months.
Dire living conditions in Gaza
These are the top American companies which are contributing heavily to the genocide in Gaza, in which a total of 38,794 civilians have been killed, 40% of the victims were men, 20% women, 32% children and 8% elderly. The reckless bombardments in the Gaza Strip have made life catastrophic. The OCHR reports say that 89,364 innocent people have been injured and nearly 1.9m people have been internally displaced. Over 60% of the residential buildings and over 80% of commercial facilities have been damaged. Twenty-one out of 36 hospitals in Gaza have been out of service, while 15 are partially functioning.
Such a dire situation in the Gaza Strip has been escalated by the exports of deadly weapons to Israel by these Top American companies. While the people of Gaza bleed to death, these companies are profiteering from agony and pain. Now, considering the role played by these corporations in abetting the Gaza genocide, can the international community impose sanctions on these corporations and reverse the catastrophe? Or they will ignore these companies due to their American origin?
