Alwaght- It has been over a year that the roaring of the Israeli fighter jets in the skies has become a nightmare to Gaza and Lebanon children, grabbing from them their calm. Actually, any moment, heavy bombs can rain down on the households, as tens of thousands of civilians have so far met such a fate.
Israeli fighters and drones fly over Gaza and Lebanese cities round the clock and strike anything moving and sky is the limit for destroying civil buildings like hospitals, schools, and mosques— something having sharply increased the civilian casualties.
But the sole reliance of the Israeli army on air capability and many flight missions has made provision of fuel for jets one of the main obsessions of the Israeli officials, something underscoring the role of fuel providers to Israel in continuation of the war.
In April 2024, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution expressing deep concern over Israel's use of jet fuel to commit violations of international law.
This month, a letter signed by more than 60 international legal experts was sent to the UN missions of all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, warning that the transit of military fuel through their territory violates international law.
Experts state that Mediterranean ports must observe international laws and refrain from transiting and serving ships that directly enable Israel to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international law. Such measures are consistent with efforts taken decades ago by governments to end apartheid in South Africa, and other examples such as the identification and disconnection campaigns between shipping companies and the military regime in Myanmar.
Earlier, the non-profit organization Oil Change International (OCI) stated in its latest research on the issue that "the continued and expanding supply of crude oil and refined petroleum products is fueling Israel's ongoing genocide", while the majority of these countries signed the Genocide Prevention Convention and the Geneva Conventions.
OCI researchers, who tracked 65 shipments of oil and fuel to Israel between October 21 last year and July 12, found that the countries had shipped a combined 4.1 million tons of crude oil to the occupied territories since the start of the Gaza war and about half of these exports took place after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued condemnation of Israeli regime, in which the court threatened Israel's allies with charges of "complicity in genocide" if they continued to support them.
After this warning, legal experts confirmed that the countries responsible for transporting oil and fuel to Israel may be charged with complicity in war crimes.
Most of the fuel for jets and diesel for tanks and bulldozers and other refined petroleum products are provided by the US.
US tankers transport military fuel from the Valero Energy refinery in Texas to the port of Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast of the occupied territories. Deployment of these shipments has continued since the beginning of the war and there are no exact statistics of its volume, but the report of Oil Change International and Data Desk shows that only between October 2023 and March 2024, three large shipments of military jet fuel were sent to Israel, each containing about 300,000 barrels of jet fuel, which is enough for about 12,000 flights of Israeli F-16 and F-35 aircraft.
In 2020, the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA Energy) awarded a $3 billion contract to Valero Energy to provide nearly 1 billion liters of JP-8 jet fuel, diesel fuel, and unleaded gasoline for a multi-year supply to the Israeli military.
Israel has three terminals receiving crude oil. Ashkelon and Haifa on the Mediterranean coast and Eilat on the Red Sea coast. Its key oil import terminal processes about 180,000 barrels of oil per day. According to Kpler data, no oil has arrived through the Red Sea terminal at Eilat since 2020, and oil flows to Haifa have averaged about 40,000 barrels per day.
On the other hand, while the Republic of Azerbaijan is still the main supplier of crude oil to Israel, Kazakhstan, Italy, Albania, Greece and Brazil and some African countries such as Gabon, Nigeria and Congo are also in this list.
Baku-Ankara-Astana bloc
Azerbaijan alone supplies 40-50 percent of the oil needed by the Israeli regime. In addition to this, Azerbaijan's state-owned energy giant, SOCAR, along with British Petroleum and the Israeli oil company NewMed, received a license to explore gas in the north of the Leviathan gas field in the eastern Mediterranean, so that Baku-Tel Aviv energy cooperation sees a significant development in recent years.
This issue caused protests by angry demonstrators and critics of the actions of the government of Azerbaijan in Turkey as a strategic ally and partner of Baku in the transfer of oil. The protestors even damaged the offices of SOCAR in Istanbul.
The relations between Azerbaijan and the Israeli regime go back to the era of Heydar Aliyev, the former president and the father of the current president Ilham Aliyev. During his presidency, Israel-Azerbaijan relations expanded, and these relations were so successful for the Israelis that Avigdor Lieberman, the former defense minister of the regime, said: "No world leader surprised me as much as Aliyev."
Under Ilham, the Baku government returned Jewish buildings confiscated by the Soviet authorities, rebuilt synagogues, and behind-the-scenes economic and military cooperation was started.
Ilham has also maintained his father's policies in support of Israel. Since he assumed the power in 2003, Baku and Tel Aviv have increased their cooperation in the fields of intelligence, military, agriculture, infrastructure and energy.
In addition to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan is another Muslim country in the region that supplies the oil needs of the Israeli regime despite international pressures.
A Bloomberg report suggests that since mid-May, Israel has imported about 220,000 barrels of oil per day, about 60 percent of which was from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and even Kazakhstan has taken the lead from Baku, with an average of 92,500 barrels per day.
The relationship between Kazakhstan and the Israeli regime is not limited to oil, as when many world governments refused to condemn Hamas’s attack on Israel, the President of Kazakhstan, Kasdym-Jomart Tokayev, was the first Central Asian leader to condemn the October 7 operation. At the end of the same month, he demanded the unconditional release of all Israeli prisoners held by Hamas. Even amid the global isolation of the Israeli regime due to crimes in Gaza, Astana announced an agreement on tourism and visa-free travels with Israel in August.
But the Azerbaijani and Kazakh oil exports are facilitated by an important mediator that is by the way supporting Palestinian people: Turkey.
While Ankara leaders have repeatedly called for an arms embargo on Israel and even claimed to completely cut off trade with Tel Aviv, they continue to transit oil from the Caucasus to the occupied territories. The oil passes through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and is then transferred to oil tankers for delivery to the Israeli side. This oil is vital, propping up the Israeli economy and air operations against Gaza and Lebanon.
This dual behavior of the Turkish government has been criticized many times by public opinion, like in a demonstration in front of the ruling Justice and Development Party headquarters in Istanbul in early September. A banner held by a pro-Palestinian group 'a thousand youth for Palestine' read: "Erdogan, turn off the oil taps. End your complicity in Israel's genocide."
Even reports show that the complete cessation of trade between Turkey and the Zionist regime is not a reality and the Turks are taking an alternative route to continue exporting goods to the occupied territories.
Middle East Eye reported in September that despite the official ban, Turkish business people have maintained exports to Israel amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
According to the statistical data of the Turkish Exporters Association (TIM) instead of directly sending products to Israel, Turkish exporters now send goods indirectly to Israel through the customs operated by the Palestinian Authority.
These data show a 423-percent increase in Turkish exports to Palestine in the first eight months of this year, which shows a jump in the value of exports from $77 million in the same period last year to $403 million in 2024.
The Middle East Eye reported that this shows that "the use of Palestine to maintain trade with Israel is increasing."
Brazil is another country that, like Turkey, despite the political positions of its leaders in support of Gaza and criticism of the criminal actions of the Zionist regime, provides at least 9 percent of crude oil shipments to Israel.
Columbia, leading the ban on coal exports
Still, there are countries that have joined the camp for energy ban on the Israeli regime in support of the Palestinians. Colombia has stopped coal exports to the Israel earlier in July with the announcement of the president of this country, Gustavo Petro.
In May, Petro, Colombia's first leftist president, announced severing diplomatic ties with Israel, ending close military and trade ties with this regime. "If Palestine dies, humanity dies," he said.
This come after the Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy wrote to Petro in June calling for a ban on coal exports to Israel.
The letter by PIPD read: " The current genocide, its length and breadth, would not have been possible if the Israeli colonialist government had not received the energy resources that allowed it to commit one of the most heinous crimes in history. Governments that do not take action are enabling the destruction of the Palestinians."
According to data published by S&P Global Commodities at Sea, Colombia is the main coal supplier to Israeli occupation and 60 percent of total Israeli imported coal in 2023 was provided by Colombia.
Reports indicate that after the ban, Israel has been quick to find alternatives and received affirmative responses from some providers, but it has to pay higher insurance fees for its coal imports.
