Middle East. "No weapons are being sold to Israel," says Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

France has a "clear" position which is not to sell arms to Israel, declared the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu on Friday evening, after dockers at the port of Marseille refused to load a container filled with military components onto a ship bound for Haifa.

"France's position could not be clearer. No weapons are sold to Israel. And for good reason: Israel is one of the main competitors of French industries," Sébastien Lecornu stated on the LCI television channel. Only "components" intended for the "Iron Dome," one of the Israeli defense systems that protects the country from missile, rocket, and drone attacks, or "elements for re-export" are sold to Israel, he added. In the latter case, "certain things go to Israel, are subject to industrial intervention, and are often re-exported. Sometimes even to France. And all of this is subject to control," the minister assured.

On Wednesday and Thursday, dockers at Marseille-Fos refused to load containers containing submachine gun parts manufactured by the Marseille-based company Eurolinks onto a ship bound for Haifa, Israel, so as not to "participate in the ongoing genocide orchestrated by the Israeli government." The ship left the port on Friday without the disputed containers.

"We do not deliver military equipment used in Gaza," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also stated on RTL radio on Friday morning, before citing "two exceptions." However, if Eurolinks' military equipment were used in Gaza, "the company exporting it would be breaking the law," he said.

Following the attack on Israel by the armed Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, 2023, which left 1,218 Israelis dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data, the Israeli army launched a retaliatory offensive in Gaza. This killed more than 54,600 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the latest data from Hamas's Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.