#头条首发大赛#
On June 26, Al Jazeera reported that India had been exporting rockets, explosives and drones to Israel during its invasion of the Gaza Strip. Moreover, at Israel's strong request, all Indian personnel are not allowed to refer to the "Israel Military Industrialization Corporation" under any circumstances during the transportation of weapons and ammunition. And after the Israeli bombing of the United Nations shelter in the Nuserrat refugee camp in Gaza on June 6, the label "Made in India" appeared among the missile fragments at the site. This means that India is indeed supplying Israel with ammunition for the massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip. So, what weapons and ammunition has India provided to Israel? And why insist on aiding Israel despite international opposition?
In fact, India has been supplying arms and ammunition to Israel in support of its massacre in the Gaza Strip for months. However, the previous acts were carried out in a relatively secretive situation, and it was only revealed for the first time in February this year by a number of Indian media outlets. Adani Elbit Advanced Systems India Ltd., a joint venture between India and Israeli drone companies in Hyderabad, India, has exported 20 Indian-made Hermes 900 drones or components (known as Drishti 10 in the Indian version) to Israel.
And this UAV was originally a multi-purpose UAV developed by Israel, which has the ability to stay in the air for 36 hours and carry a payload of 420 kg. Although the aircraft generally performs more reconnaissance missions, and the Indian-Israeli joint production company in India also emphasizes the "unarmed" characteristics of these "Hermes 900" drones, the company's refusal to provide export information on these drones is very suspicious. You must know that in India's export control documents for military trade goods, the "surveillance and reconnaissance" capability of the aircraft belongs to the category of "military use", and it is required to obtain export approval, but this batch of drones has not been found by the Indian media The relevant approval documents.
In addition, no matter how India's "Hermes 900" UAV production company emphasizes the "unarmed" characteristics of the aircraft, it still cannot change the "combat" attributes of this type of UAV. This is not only from Israel's previous display that the aircraft has 4 "pylons" to show off its powerful weapon payload capabilities; In an interview with the Israeli army's drone unit in December 2023 by the British "Daily Telegraph", the soldiers operating the Israeli army's "Hermes 900" also proudly said that the aircraft can carry two kinds of laser-guided bombs with different accuracy to carry out combat missions, one of which has an accuracy of up to 1 meter, which can theoretically kill the front seat of the vehicle without injuring the rear passengers, and the other has a killing radius of up to 5-10 meters.
In addition, according to United Nations personnel in the Gaza Strip, since the Israeli invasion, "Hermes 900" has been very frequent in the skies over Gaza. And the "Hermes 900" is also an important weapon for the Israeli army to search for and assassinate the leaders of the Palestinian resistance. Although there is no evidence of how many Hermes 900 machines or components India has exported to Israel, the fact that India has supported Israel's massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip with concrete actions cannot be concealed! India's support for Israel's massacre of civilians is not only manifested in the provision of drones. India has also exported large quantities of artillery shells, explosives, artillery propellants, rockets, and rocket engines used in the manufacture of missiles to Israel.
In the early hours of May 15 this year, the cargo ship Borkum, which departed from India, was met with a large number of protesters waving Palestinian flags and several members of the European Parliament who resisted the planned call at the port of Cartagena, Spain, who demanded that the Spanish prime minister ban the ship because it contained weapons and ammunition destined for Israel. Eventually, the ship left Spain and continued north. It is reported that the cargo ship's destination is the Israeli port of Ashdod, about 30 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. After departing from Chennai in southeastern India on April 2, the cargo ship deliberately chose a long detour to Africa to avoid being attacked by the Houthis as it crossed the waters of the Red Sea.
Al Jazeera unofficially obtained identification codes on documents confirming that the Borkum was carrying 20 tons of rocket engines, 12.5 tons of rockets with explosives, 1,500 kilograms of explosives and 740 kilograms of artillery propellant. The confidentiality clause also stipulates that no staff, consultant or other interested party shall refer to IMI Systems or Israel under any circumstances. India's Premier Explosives Limited (Advanced Explosives) Company is a company that mainly produces solid propellants for the Barak series of surface-to-air missiles equipped by Israel and India, and the company also manufactures mines and ammunition. The company's executive director was also pleased to say on a March 31 conference call that the company's quarterly revenue would hit a record high due to an increase in export orders from Israel — a sign that Israel had indeed ordered large quantities of ammunition, propellants and weapons parts from the company.
The reason why India continues to supply weapons and ammunition to Israel, which has turned a blind eye to Israel's genocide in Gaza, is that Israel is now India's fourth largest arms supplier. In addition, India and Israel have also established a number of joint ventures in the Indian military-industrial complex, and many of the weapons and ammunition produced have been returned to Israel and used in the war to massacre civilians, such as the "Hermes 900" drone mentioned above. In fact, the state-to-state relations between the two countries, driven by the arms deal, can be traced back to the 50s and 60s of the last century. And in 1962, when China and India went to war, India had already turned to Israel for emergency arms imports. In 2020, when China and India again had a prolonged confrontation on the border, India once again asked Israel to expedite the purchase of more than 300 "Spike" anti-tank missiles.
In fact, Israel's strong support for India during the "Kargil conflict" between India and Pakistan in 1999 led to the rapid improvement of relations between the two countries, and even caused India to reverse its previous sympathy for Palestine and start supporting Israel in one fell swoop, until it voted against the "Gaza Ceasefire Agreement" at the United Nations in April 2024. India's nuclear test in 1998 led to an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations. However, the Indian army, which has relied on imported bullets and artillery shells all year round, has been extremely unfavorable in its counteroffensive operations under the unfavorable situation of fighting on the plateau and the Pakistani army still occupying the high ground, and its casualties have been very large.
At the same time, despite the restrictions of the "arms embargo", Israel not only provided India with much-needed 155-millimeter artillery shells, laser-guided bombs, "Heron" drones and other weapons and equipment, but also helped the Indian army win the 11-week conflict. Later, Israel also helped the Indian army upgrade the MiG-21, Su-30MKI, Mirage-2000, and even the "Tejal" fighter developed by India itself. It has also provided missile defense systems, electronic warfare equipment, radars, and communications equipment, thus raising the overall strength of the Indian armed forces to several different levels than that of Pakistan. After the Indian army saw Israel's strong military industrial strength, it has gradually upgraded its military-trade relations with Israel in the years since, and the "Barak" air defense system is currently the most important weapons cooperation project between the two countries.
In addition, according to a report by the New York Times in 2022, India is also one of the customers of the "Pegasus" mobile spy software made by Israeli companies. The spy software can effectively hack Apple and Android phones, and send all the information and call "content" on the phone back to the installer's server, and can locate the phone at any time and call the camera and microphone on the phone, turning it into a mobile information collection tool. The report mentions that many of the Israeli-developed "Pegasus" spyware was purchased by "customers" to spy on political opponents and rely on the information they gathered to retaliate against them. And when you think of India's large-scale retaliation against rivals not long before the general election, one has to wonder how much Israel's "Pegasus" software has helped from it!
Therefore, under the various "bundles of interests" between the two countries, India's move of continuing to supply arms and ammunition to Israel will not stop, and at best it will only do a better job of secrecy. But we can also see from this that the "third brother", who has always been looked down upon before, can now be exported "in reverse" to Israel, a military industrial power. It seems that we also have to reverse the stereotype of the "third brother" and never take it lightly!