BIRN: Serbia exported more ammunition to Israel in the first six months of 2025 than in all of last year

Serbia exported ammunition worth around 2025 million euros to Israel in the first half of 55,5, which is more than during the entire previous year, when exports reached a then-record 47,9 million euros, according to research by the portal. BIRN i Harec.

The portal states that it obtained this information from an insight into customs data, adding that the export dates from the first half of 2025 coincide with 16 Israeli flights from Belgrade to Nevatim Air Base, which journalists identified through several websites that monitor live airline flights.

In addition to the state-owned company "Jugoimport SDPR", five more Serbian private companies have exported ammunition/weapons to Israel over the past two years, the weekly Radar previously reported, and BIRN/Harec reveals that two of those five companies - "Edepro" and "Romax Trade" - have exported ammunition this year to two well-known Israeli security companies that have the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) among their clients.

One of the two companies, IMI Systems, is owned by Elbit Systems, one of Israel's largest arms manufacturers, which was mentioned in a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the West Bank and Gaza, Francesca Albanese, published on June 30, among the companies for which "the current genocide has become a lucrative business."

Serbia avoids publishing any official data on arms and ammunition exports to Israel, rejecting requests for access to information of public importance submitted by BIRN in March 2024 and July 30, 2025, stating that the requested information is "strictly confidential."

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić told the Jerusalem Post on June 6 that Serbia is the only country in Europe that sells ammunition to Israel, but on June 23, when asked by a reporter whether Serbia had chosen a side in the Israeli-Iranian conflict by exporting ammunition to Israel, he said that the country had suspended the export of weapons and ammunition.

"We are not exporting anything now. We have stopped everything now and there must be special and specific decisions if anything is going to work," Vučić said at the time.

BIRN writes that on the same day, just a few hours after Vučić declared a moratorium on exports, an Israeli Boeing 747 cargo plane landed at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport, and the next day flew to Israel's Nevatim Air Base, according to data from the Flightradar24 website.

When asked about the plane later that day, Vučić replied: "It doesn't occur to me to say what took off and what landed."