Israel’s Defence Ministry director-general Amir Baram has halted all defence procurement from France, a country whose behaviour towards Israel Baram has previously called “absolutely, bluntly anti-Semitic”.
Baram ordered the termination of existing French contracts and a shift toward instead purchasing Israeli-made equipment and purchases from more friendly countries.
The decision, reported in the Israeli media, follows what the country’s officials have described as Paris’s increasingly hostile stance toward it since the Hamas attacks in October 2023.
Israel has criticised France for blocking off parts of the Israeli pavilion at the Paris Air Show in June 2025, during its 12-day war with Iran.
French authorities erected partitions around Israeli displays of offensive weapons systems despite prior understandings.
At the time, Baram described the move as “absolutely, bluntly anti-Semitic” and accused Paris of using political pretexts for commercial exclusion to protect French industries from Israeli competition.
The Defence Ministry said this occurred “at a time when Israel is fighting a necessary and just war to eliminate the nuclear and ballistic threat facing the Middle East, Europe and the entire world.”
France also supported calls for a UN arms embargo on Israel and imposed restrictions on Israeli participation in other defence exhibitions.
This included earlier attempts to limit displays at events such as Eurosatory, a large international exhibition for the defence and security industry held every two years in Paris.
A Paris court overturned one such ban on Israeli participation in October 2024, ruling it violated principles of equality.
Israeli officials have cited these actions, along with broader French policy on its conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, as evidence of a pattern that has eroded trust.
Conversely, Israel has also halted sales of its own defence products to France, with Defence Minister Israel Katz issuing the formal order.
Senior sources told The Jerusalem Post this reflected a re-evaluation of sharing sensitive technology with a country increasingly perceived as hostile.
Israel is expected to honour its existing contracts in both directions, and private-sector deals may continue, but government-to-government procurement from France has effectively ended.
One Israeli official described French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to allow US aircraft to transit French airspace en route to Israel as “the straw that broke the camel’s back”
The announcement marks the latest escalation in strained relations between the two countries, which have historically maintained defence ties but have diverged sharply over Israel’s military operations recently.
French officials have not yet responded publicly to the procurement halt.
Separately, it emerged Israeli troops in southern Lebanon have fired at French troops serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The incident took place over the weekend, beginning on Saturday morning, when armed Israelis threatened the French chief of staff.
Later in the middle of the day, IDF soldiers opened fire on a logistical convoy on a supply mission, led by French soldiers.
Then, late Saturday afternoon, an Israeli tank fired on a rapid reaction force, a French-Finnish battalion reporting to the UNIFIL commander, reported France’s BFMTV.
On Sunday, Israeli army fire fell “about fifteen metres” from French soldiers.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the events as “extremely serious incidents“.
Barrot requested the United Nations Security Council to convene an emergency meeting.
Shootings in late March cost the lives of several Indonesian blue helmet peacekeepers, he observed.
Since the Israeli and US war in Iran began, Israel has also attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon. Its attacks have killed more than 1,200 people and caused a large flight of refugees from southern Lebanon, a former French protectorate.
