The Bomb on Time: To Gaza, by Way of Cologne
It is usually early evening when the plane from Memphis, Tennessee, lands at Cologne Bonn Airport, having traveled over 7,500 kilometers to the banks of the Rhine. On board these FedEx cargo flights, which cross the Atlantic several times a week, are not just exports headed to Germany. According to internal documents seen by the Diasporist, these packages contain goods sent from production sites of F-35 fighter jets, with shipping forms listing their final destination as Israel’s Nevatim Airbase in the Negev desert. These shipments have continued even after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a freeze on most weapons deliveries to Israel last month.
Nevatim, constructed in the early 1980s to the east of Beer Sheva, is one of Israel’s most important military airfields and is home to Israel’s F-35 fleet. Since 2023, Nevatim has been a major launchpad for the frequent deadly assaults on the Gaza Strip — including the current bombing raids against the densely populated Gaza City.
According to the documents, obtained by the Irish news website The Ditch and corroborated by the Diasporist with information found on FedEx’s website, in the second week of September alone, 30 such shipments arrived at Cologne Bonn Airport. Most of the shipments originated in Fort Worth, Texas, where Lockheed Martin, the United States’ largest defense manufacturer, operates a central production plant for the F-35 fighter jet; the rest came from other locations where Lockheed Martin operates factories or warehouses. Some packages weigh less than a kilo, others significantly more. The precise contents remain unclear; they could contain units belonging to the electronic warfare system, arming panels, or infrared sensors. After all, the F-35 fighter jet, which costs up to $120 million per aircraft, is built from a staggering number of individual components.
These shipments travel from Memphis, home to the United States’ busiest cargo airport as well as the corporate headquarters of FedEx, to Germany aboard FedEx-operated aircraft. Since 2010, the courier and logistics company has used Cologne Bonn Airport as a central transit hub for shipments to Central and Eastern Europe as well as Israel. In Cologne, the shipments bound for the military base are unloaded onto German soil where they remain for several hours — sometimes days or even weeks — before being reloaded onto another FedEx-operated flight. This second cargo plane departs Cologne daily in the late morning, headed to Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. From there, they make their way to their final destination, the Nevatim Airbase.
The transport of these parts has already been reported internationally. As early as October 2024, The Ditch reported on these FedEx flights passing through Irish airspace on their way to Cologne without the permission required for transferring munitions of war. The Belgian daily newspapers De Morgen and Le Soir detailed how some of these shipments, many labeled with the United States’ ITAR designation (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), were transferred without domestic authorization from Cologne Bonn Airport to a FedEx warehouse in Belgian territory and kept there in June, while Israeli airspace was closed during the 12-day-long Iran-Israel war.
German media outlets did not cover these reports; at the time, the German government, Israel’s closest ally in the European Union, did not have an official policy that restricted the export of weapons to Israel. To the contrary, in recent years, it has been one of Israel’s primary weapons suppliers, second only the United States.
Until Further Notice
On August 8, Merz declared that in light of the “even harsher military actions of the Israeli army,” the German government would “not authorize any exports of military goods that could be employed in the Gaza Strip until further notice.” Following another Israeli attack on a hospital at the end of August, which resulted in the deaths of numerous journalists, Merz stated he felt “more than vindicated” in his decision “that Israel would not receive any weapons from Germany that could be used under these conditions in the Gaza Strip.”
Nevertheless, FedEx tracking information reviewed by The Ditch and partially confirmed by the Diasporist demonstrates that since August 8, up to 302 shipments originating in the United States and ultimately delivered to Nevatim Airbase have passed through Cologne Bonn Airport. Further, during the week of September 15, these shipments, which presumably contain spare parts that Israel relies on for its ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, passed through German territory unhindered.
The use of such components in Gaza is a near certainty. It is impossible to quantify how many of the total airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which have in sum killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and, according to a New York Times report in May 2025, several Israeli hostages, were conducted by F-35 fighter jets. However, an article in YNET, Israel’s most-read news website, confirmed last year that F-35 fighter jets had taken part in hundreds of these airstrikes since October 2023. Following a request from the Diasporist, an IDF spokesperson declined to comment on their current use in Gaza. According to the Israeli Air Force, however, F-35 jets were involved in the most recent attack on the Qatari capital, an act of military aggression that was decried as unacceptable by Germany’s federal minister for foreign affairs, Johann Wadephul.
On September 16, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry of the U.N. Human Rights Council declared that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and that nations are obligated to prevent the supply of weapons that could be used in Gaza. A case against Germany for aiding and abetting genocide is still pending before the International Court of Justice, a case that rests in part upon such weapons shipments. However, inquiries made by the Diasporist to various state authorities reveal a web of jurisdictional gaps and a shifting of responsibility that have allowed the continuous flow of weapons parts to Israel through German territory.
The Sum of its Parts
Customs officials provide primary oversight on shipments in and out of Germany. The Directorate General of Customs in Bonn confirmed to the Diasporist that shipments by courier companies are generally declared to customs, even when they are merely in transit from one non-EU country to another. The description of goods must be “stated so precisely that the goods can be easily and unambiguously identified.” Authorities therefore, should have knowledge about the content of these packages, and whether they contain military parts. At the same time, the directorate noted that customs officers can stop goods based on EU regulations and legal provisions, but any further responsibility for “granting authorization in the field of military goods and weapons” lies with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), and its subordinate agency, the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA).
When the Diasporist submitted a request regarding these shipments to BAFA, the office made clear that the “mere transit of military goods […] does not fall under export control authorization requirements,” provided that the goods are not “weapons of war under the German War Weapons Control Act (Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz).”
Perhaps counterintuitively, German law distinguishes between complete weapons systems and their components, even when those components are indispensable for the systems’ use. As a result, while the transit of deployable weapons of war — such as pistols, an entire tank or fighter jet, or explosives — requires prior authorization from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, their spare parts are subject to far less scrutiny.
On a Case-by-Case Basis
The freezing of weapons exports to Israel announced by Merz in August, however, also extends to “other military goods” — meaning, for example, tank engines or spare parts for F-35 fighter jets. Accordingly, the Diasporist submitted an inquiry to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The ministry confirmed that the German government does indeed decide on the granting of licenses for arms exports (both weapons of war and other military goods) “on a case-by-case basis and in light of the specific situation.” This principle, the ministry emphasized, applies “also to the granting of authorizations for the transit of military goods through German territory.” In other words, the federal government has the ability to determine which parts can enter and leave German territory.
In the same communication, the ministry said that the transit of other military goods — in contrast to complete weapons systems — is “generally not subject to authorization.” While the ministry controls what can and cannot be transited through Germany, it does not require companies shipping these parts to request authorization in the first place. This results in a lack of executive power that could easily be remedied administratively: Under the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, the ministry can impose restrictions on foreign trade “to prevent a disturbance of the peaceful coexistence of nations,” particularly when it involves “weapons, ammunition and other military equipment.”
In other words, the German government is authorized to halt the transit of such weapons by ordinance, dependent neither on parliamentary legislation nor EU directives. Yet, despite Merz’s statement that Germany would not send any weapons that could be used in the Gaza Strip to Israel, these shipments continue.
When the Diasporist asked the chancellery whether the federal government intends, despite the lack of bureaucratic authorization requirements, to halt the transit of weapon parts to Israel, the question went unanswered. The reply instructed the Diasporist to “please direct your inquiry to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.” As of publication, a further question to the ministry itself remained unanswered.
Shying Away From International Law
As a party to the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute, Germany is legally obligated to prevent genocide. This obligation is further reinforced by the German constitution’s orientation toward international law, which, in response to the crimes of the Holocaust, elevates the inviolability of human dignity to the highest principle and regards inalienable human rights as the foundation of peace in the world. Despite the country’s legal mandate and its own belated recognition that weapons supplies to a state accused of genocide should be halted, Germany continues to shy away from fully implementing such measures.
In recent weeks, there have been heated exchanges between journalists and government representatives over the question of whether shipments authorized prior to Merz’s August 8 announcement would still be completed. Journalist Tilo Jung accused two government spokespeople of spreading “fake news” when they claimed that no more weapons were being delivered to Israel. A few days before, Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, reported that a transport aircraft, one often used by the Israeli military, flew from Cologne Bonn Airport to Israel on August 25.
At a federal press conference on September 1, a government spokesperson insisted that when it comes to already-issued authorization, the federal government could do many things — but not “shift time and space.” Despite the spokesperson’s statement, the revocation of authorizations — a perfectly ordinary administrative act — does not violate any law of nature. Susanne Weipert from Action Outcry – Stop Arms Trade, a coalition of German peace organizations, told the Diasporist that export permits for military equipment can be revoked, and that the government has other, related tools at its disposal. According to Weipert, when Saudi Arabia was accused of breaches of international law during its involvement in the Yemeni civil war, “the German government found a way in 2018 to halt already authorized shipments through so-called suspension orders.” These orders were extended several times. Given the ongoing situation in Gaza and the recent U.N. commission report labeling Israel’s actions as genocide, “the government is legally bound to immediately stop deliveries of any military goods that could contribute to these crimes,” she said.
Corporate Responsibility
According to international law, corporations as well as states bear responsibility for ensuring they do not aid genocide or crimes against humanity. As highlighted in the latest report by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, the responsibility of corporate entities for violations of international law exists “independently from that of States and irrespective of the action States do or do not take to ensure they respect human rights.”
FedEx, as a global logistics giant, is not exempt from these obligations, regardless of the legal frameworks in the countries in which it operates. In fact, FedEx commits in its own code of conduct to “to protecting human rights in our operations.” The company’s global human rights policy declares that it strives to “to exemplify ethical leadership and corporate responsibility through support of Human Rights on a global scale.” As definition, the policy cites the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In response to the Diasporist’s list of questions about shipments to the Israeli Air Force and compliance with the company’s code of conduct and global policies, FedEx said only that it “is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations relating to the shipment of goods in our network. As a matter of policy, we do not disclose the details of customer shipments.” They did not mention human rights.
Out for Delivery
Just hours before publication, on the evening of September 18, flight FDX4 from Memphis touched down in Cologne carrying two small packages — one from Florida, the other from Oklahoma — each weighing less than a kilo. The final destination was given as Nevatim air base. The date of their scheduled arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport is still undisclosed. Their presence on German territory poses a stark test: If Berlin’s commitment to international law is more than rhetoric, these shipments must not leave Cologne aboard the next outbound plane.