Spain Scraps $825m Israeli Arms Deal Amid Gaza Conflict

The Spanish government has cancelled a defense contract worth nearly €700 million ($825 million) for Israeli-designed rocket launchers, deepening tensions between Madrid and Tel Aviv.

The deal, awarded to a consortium of Spanish firms, involved the purchase of 12 SILAM rocket launcher systems derived from Israel’s Elbit Systems’ PULS platform, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.

The cancellation, first reported by Spanish media and Haaretz, was formalized on Spain’s official public contracts platform on September 9. A day later, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced new measures to “consolidate in law” a ban on all military sales or purchases involving Israel over its ongoing offensive in Gaza.

Sánchez said the decree was aimed at halting what his leftist government described as “the genocide in Gaza.” Spain applied the embargo as Israel intensified its military campaign following Hamas’s October 2023 attacks.

Madrid also scrapped another contract worth €287 million for 168 anti-tank missile launchers licensed from an Israeli company, a deal first reported in June. Spanish daily La Vanguardia reported that the government is conducting a wider review to phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.

Sánchez has become one of Europe’s most vocal critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policy. Relations between Spain and Israel have been strained since Madrid recognized the state of Palestine in 2024. Israel has not had an ambassador in Spain since then, and last week Madrid recalled its own envoy from Tel Aviv following sharp exchanges over the new measures.

The Barcelona-based Delàs Centre, a security think tank, estimated in April that Spain had awarded 46 contracts worth $1.044 billion to Israeli companies since the Gaza war began, based on public tender data.

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