Saudi, UAE among states fuelling Israel’s offensive on Gaza, report finds

Numerous Arab states are among the countries and companies that have been helping Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip by providing oil and fuel to the occupation throughout the ongoing conflict, new data has revealed.

According to a report by the outlet Oil Change International, new data that it commissioned – which traced the supply chains of crude oil and refined products to Israel – revealed that the largest supplier of imported jet fuel to the Israeli military is, unsurprisingly, the United States, with three tankers of JP8 Jet Fuel being provided to Tel Aviv since the war started.

Reportedly formulated specifically for military jets, that jet fuel was part of the US’s vast military aid to the occupation, making it a key component in Israel air strikes on Palestinians in the besieged strip.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are two other countries friendly with Israel and which have served as suppliers of the majority of crude oil to the occupation since the Gaza offensive began. The imports from those states also implicate numerous oil companies in the supply, with the likes of BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell and Eni owning or operating the pipelines used for its transportation.

Another key source of Israel’s crude oil imports come from the Sumed pipeline, which receives “small but regular” amounts of the fuel from Arab states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq and from Egypt – countries through which the pipeline travels. All these countries have condemned Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Russia is another state which has played a role in supplying fuel to Israel, as it reportedly provides a steady stream of vacuum gas oil (VGO) – usually upgraded into gasoline and diesel – to a key refinery in Haifa.

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Brazil is also on the list, with two shipments of Brazilian crude oil worth 260,000 tonnes recorded to have been delivered to Israel since December. That oil was initially supplied from offshore fields co-owned by the companies Shell and TotalEnergies, along with Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras.

The data and their revelations shed further light on the role of multiple countries and transnational companies supplying Israel with the fuel necessary to continue its bombardment and invasion of Gaza.

It comes as activists and human rights figures increasingly call for governments and companies to impose an energy embargo on Israel by ceasing all fuel shipments to the occupation state until it ends the offensive on Gaza and the countless war crimes it has perpetrated there.

“Countries, as well as oil and gas companies, must be held to account for their role in perpetuating violence and human rights abuses”, the report stated, with Oil Change International’s US Program Manager Allie Rosenbluth saying that they are “fueling Israel’s war machine” and are “complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Rosenbluth further stated: “We call on nations to leverage their oil supply as a means to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to the occupation. Fossil fuel companies, like BP, Chevron, and Exxon, driven solely by profit, are willing to fuel conflict against innocent civilians. This must stop today. We demand a permanent ceasefire and an end to Israeli occupation in Palestine.”

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