Germany’s government has approved the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons and military equipment to the Israeli regime amid its ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Citing a government response to a parliamentary inquiry, Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday that Berlin had approved $930 million worth of arms exports to the Israeli regime between January and June alone.
The report added that export licenses approved by the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz surged to more than four times the total approved in all of 2025.
Around one-fifth of the exports were linked to German-Israeli military-industry cooperation benefiting the German Armed Forces, according to the government.
About two-thirds of the approved value is tied to the INS Drakon, a nearly 70-meter-long Dolphin II-class submarine built for the Israeli regime by German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).
The vessel, which can remain submerged for weeks, left Kiel on Tuesday and is reportedly en route to the region.
The remainder of the weaponry was not classified as “weapons of war,” and included small arms, ammunition, explosives, and drones, according to Der Spiegel.
Merz had suspended exports of weapons that could be used in Gaza on August 8 after the Israeli regime decided to expand its military operations in the enclave. The restrictions remained in force for only about three and a half months.
After Merz’s government lifted partial restrictions on weapons exports to the Israeli regime on November 24, 2025, German arms exports surged sharply.
Lea Reisner, the Left Party’s spokesperson for international affairs, accused the government of applying “unlimited double standards” in its foreign policy.
Reisner rebuked the government for condemning statements targeting Gaza’s civilian population by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir while continuing to expand military support for the regime.
Germany’s Left Party renewed its call for an immediate and comprehensive halt to German arms exports to the Israeli regime.
Berlin has long been one of the Israeli regime’s strongest supporters, with German leaders frequently defending that support as a “historical responsibility” arising from Germany’s Nazi past and the Holocaust.
In 2023, Germany approved €327 million in arms and military equipment exports to the Israeli regime, a tenfold increase from 2022. The government then approved €161.1 million in 2024, followed by €260 million in 2025.
Presently, Germany remains one of the world’s largest arms exporters to the Israeli regime.
According to the Ministry for Economic Affairs’ Arms Export Report published in mid-July, Berlin approved export licenses worth $15.8 billion during the first half of 2026, more than four times the amount approved during the same period a year earlier.
