GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) An investigative report by the French non-profit media outlet Disclose revealed that France approved the sale of weapons equipment used by Israel to bomb civilian targets.
Dozens of classified documents obtained by the outlet revealed that the Thales Group, a French IT company, recently delivered electronic components used to construct Israel’s Hermes 900 armed drones. France owns a 26 percent stake in the company.
According to the documents, the equipment in question is the TSC 4000 IFF transponder.
Disclose states that the French armed forces ministry classifies the transponders as “surveillance, target tracking, and reconnaissance systems,” which allow drones to avoid the risk of collision and firing at friendly aircraft.
“At least eight of these transponders were supposed to be flown to Israel between December 2023 and the end of May 2024,” Disclose reports. “That’s several months after the first aerial bombings. Two transponders were delivered in 2024 […] The other six are reported to have been stopped by French customs.”
Israel then used these French-supplied components to strike civilian targets.
The outlet quotes the head of Israel’s Squadron 166, which flies Hermes 900 assault drones, as admitting to targeting a hospital in Khan Yunis in February following France’s delivery of the surveillance and targeting equipment.
Disclose writes that the sale of these components shows the French state’s lack of transparency regarding arms sales, despite Paris’ claims to the contrary.
