A Spanish company has shipped 1,207 tonnes of steel to Israeli weapons maker IMI Systems since August 2024 – despite recent calls by the Spanish foreign minister for an arms embargo against Israel.
UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese has asked the Turkish authorities to investigate revelations by The Ditch that a ship carrying the fourth such shipment to Israel is docked in Mersin, Turkey.
The Ditch, in collaboration with news publications in France and Belgium, helped prevent the shipment of more than 26 tonnes of munitions to Israel last week.
Sidenor Aceros Especiales has been supplying Israeli arms manufacturer IMI Systems (IMI) with steel bars for at least ten months.
The Basque-based company sent 239 tonnes of steel bars to IMI, an Elbit Systems-owned company, in August 2024, according to shipping records obtained by The Ditch.
It sent another shipment of steel bars weighing more than 219 tonnes in March this year.
It sent a third shipment last month, which weighed 356 tonnes. The ZIM Atlantic carried this shipment in fourteen containers and was allowed to dock at Mersin on 25 May before arriving in Haifa four days later.
The Ditch told the BDS movement last weekend that a fourth shipment, weighing 393 tonnes, would dock at a Turkish port yesterday before arriving in Haifa, Israel.
BDS Türkiye has demanded that its government confiscate the 15-container shipment of steel from the Vela ship, currently docked at Mersin port.
Israeli cargo company Zim transported all four shipments identified by The Ditch from Barcelona to Haifa and later to IMI’s Ramat Hasharon plant.
IMI Systems makes artillery weapons and ammunition mainly for the Israeli Defense Forces.
Sidenor Aceros Especiales has been contacted for comment.
