The aggression against Gaza… American arms companies reap huge profits
Since October 7, the Israeli army has carried out more than 4,300 raids on the Gaza Strip with thousands of tons of bombs and explosives.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that Israel dropped more than 25,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip, the equivalent of two nuclear bombs, as of November 2. Thus, an average of 1,086 tons of explosives were dropped on Gaza daily.
Most of the heavy bombs that were dropped on the Gaza Strip belong to the “Mk-80” family manufactured in the United States. This type of bomb has been in service since the Vietnam War, and was used extensively during the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was originally designed as conventional weapons with high impact. Free, but they were modernized and developed using advanced technical targeting devices that turned them into “smart bombs.”
A 1,000-kg bomb costs $16,000 in the US Army, and is sold for about $25,000 to the armies of allied countries for the traditional version.
The Israeli army also possesses American-made GBU-28 bombs. This bomb weighs 2,100 kilograms and contains highly explosive materials. It is designed to penetrate fortified targets deep in the ground.
Military manufacturing companies
Major arms manufacturers in the United States witnessed significant increases in their shares as a result of the war in Gaza, as Lockheed Martin, a major American defense contractor, recorded a significant increase in the price of its shares from 0.85% on October 6 to 8.93% on October 6. The ninth of the same month. This is the largest increase in the company’s share prices since March 2020.
Likewise, RTX Corp. and Northrop Grumman respectively saw their stock prices increase from 0.56% and 0.75% to 4.62% and 11.4% in the same period.
General Dynamics also recorded its largest gains on October 9, rising by approximately 10%.
The increase in the profits of American arms companies is mainly due to the growing Israeli demand for weapons. Israel says that it has used more than 10,000 bombs and missiles in the Gaza Strip, which necessitates a significant increase in military capabilities.
In this context, American arms companies stand out as the main winners, benefiting from their pivotal role as the largest arms exporter to Israel, as more than 70% of Israel’s arms purchases come from the United States, as evidenced by the increase in revenues from major American arms suppliers since the start of the war.
Israeli companies
As for Israeli arms manufacturing companies, they are now living their golden age, as all military production machines in Israel have been working non-stop, around the clock for more than a month, including weekends, and every day provide hundreds of assault rifles to Israeli army units, which are fighting on… The front, for the reserve groups that arm themselves, and personal pistols for civilians, as reported by the Hebrew economic newspaper “Calca list”.
The newspaper reported that “since the beginning of the war, more than 190,000 applications for weapons licenses have been submitted to the Ministry of National Security.”
The economic newspaper confirmed that “the war on Gaza has taken over the entire Israeli arms industry… and while many companies have closed their doors, the Israeli arms industry has not previously recorded such demands since the establishment of the state.”
