Despite Islamabad’s longstanding support for the Palestinian cause and particular opposition to the establishment of the state of Israel, reports suggest that Pakistan is providing 155mm shells to Israel during its conflict with Hamas. An account on X, the former Twitter, claimed to have flown from Bahrain to the Nur Khan facility in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and then via Oman to an allied post in Cyprus. The account referenced flight-tracker data to support its claims.
Prior to this, the Israeli daily Haaretz revealed that more than forty US transport planes, twenty British transport planes, and seven heavy transport helicopters transported troops, weapons, and equipment to RAF Akrotiri.
Moreover, among other things, the US planes that touched down at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport brought armored cars.
Will it lay an impact?
Pakistan is among the select few nations worldwide that refuses to acknowledge Israel. Pakistan voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine when it was first proposed in 1947. Notoriety has it that a Pakistani passport has a disclaimer on the back saying, “This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel.”
The Pakistani government has always stated that it will not work toward normalizing relations with Israel until an independent Palestinian state has been established, with East Jerusalem serving as its capital, inside the pre-1967 borders. However, Pakistan has a history of contacting Israel through Turkey.
According to a 2009 Wikileaks article, ISI, the intelligence agency of Pakistan, had warned Israel of an impending terrorist attack in Mumbai, known as the 26/11 strikes, when terrorists from Pakistan also attacked a Jewish cultural center.
Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, asserted that considerable diplomatic pressure had been exerted on Islamabad to normalize relations with Israel by the US and “at least one other country” after the Abraham Accords were successful in 2020.
Behind story of the 155mm factor
Pakistan is a producer of the standard weapons used for ground operations. According to an article published in The Intercept in September 2023, Islamabad was assisted in securing a highly disputed bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by covert Pakistani arms shipments to the US.
According to reports, the goal of the arms transactions was to provide the Ukrainian military with a variety of supplies, including 155mm ammunition. Islamabad specifically refuted this assertion, highlighting its “strict neutrality” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
