Elbit Systems Ltd

Elbit supplies the Israeli military with a wide variety of weapons, including missiles, bombs, drones, gun systems, ammunition, and 155mm artillery shells. Elbit technologies, including Torch-X command and control, electronic warfare (EW), display, and warning systems, are also integrated into the Israeli military’s main fighter aircraft, battle tanks, and warships.

For years, these weapons have repeatedly been used against Palestinian civilians, resulting in numerous casualties and the mass destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and water and electric systems. These attacks include war crimes that Israel has committed during several major military offensives against the Gaza Strip, which has been illegally blockaded since 2007:

• 2023–2024 (“Operation Swords of Iron”): Since October 2023, Israel has waged unprecedented aerial and ground attacks on Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly unarmed civilians. These attacks may amount to genocide, according to a preliminary ruling by the International Court of Justice, a U.S. federal court, U.N. experts, legal scholars, and others. Evidence of war crimes has been published by the U.N. and numerous other human rights organizations. The U.S. government itself concluded that “it is reasonable to assess” that U.S. weapons have been used “in instances inconsistent with” Israel’s obligations under international law.
• 2022 ("Operation Breaking Dawn"): Within three days of an unprovoked offensive, Israel killed at least 33 Palestinians, including 17 civilians. Evidence of war crimes was recorded by Amnesty International.
• 2021 ("Operation Guardian of the Walls"): During this assault, Israel killed at least 261 Palestinians, including 67 children and 41 women. At least half of the fatalities were civilians, and more than 2,200 additional Palestinians were injured. Evidence of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity was published by Palestinian human rights organizations Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights; Amnesty International; and Human Rights Watch. The International Criminal Court announced that it would examine these cases.
• 2014 ("Operation Protective Edge"): During this 50-day assault, Israel killed at least 2,131 Palestinians, at least 1,473 of whom were civilians, including 501 children and 257 women. At least 11,100 Palestinians were wounded, including 3,374 children. Evidence of war crimes was published by Palestinian human rights organizations Al-Haq and Al Mezan; Israeli organization B'Tselem; Amnesty International; and Human Rights Watch.
• 2012 ("Operation Pillar of Defense"): Israel killed 174 Palestinians, 101 of whom were civilians, including 33 children and 13 women. Evidence of Israeli war crimes was published by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the U.N.
• 2008–2009 ("Operation Cast Lead"): During this 22-day assault, Israel killed at least 1,385 Palestinians, including at least 308 children, and wounded at least 5,000 more. The majority of casualties were civilians. Evidence of war crimes was published by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the U.N.'s Fact-Finding Mission.

Bombs, Missiles, and Munitions

The Israeli military uses Elbit MPR 500 multi-purpose bombs in its attacks on Gaza, including in its 2023–2024 genocidal attacks. Designed for use in “densely populated urban warfare,” these bombs contain 26,000 controlled fragments for “high kill probability.” Elbit has stated that these 500-pound bombs are as powerful as U.S.-made, 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs. These weapons can be converted into guided bombs using, for example, the Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM).

Despite their purported increased precision, these “smart” bombs have been used to kill Palestinian civilians, prompting human rights organizations to conclude that they have been used to deliberately target individuals. MPR 500 bombs were reportedly used for the first time during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza. According to findings published by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2015, the Israeli military likely used an MPR 500 bomb equipped with a Boeing JDAM to strike a family home in Khan Younis, Gaza, killing nine people, six of whom were children. In the wake of Israel’s 2014 attacks, IMI Systems developed the larger MPR 1000 and 2000 bombs using the same technology.

Killer and Surveillance Drones

Elbit supplies unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the Israeli military, including armed and unarmed Hermes 450 and 900 drones; Skylark intelligence-gathering drones; and accompanying ground control systems, support equipment, and data platforms. These drones form the majority of Israel’s fleet of large drones and have been used extensively for attack and surveillance purposes in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon, including during Israel’s 2023–2024 genocidal attacks, and along the Gaza–Israel border.

Elbit’s Hermes 450 drone, has become the “primary platform” of the Israeli military in its “counter-terror operations,” according to the company. In April 2024, an Hermes 450 drone was used to attack three vehicles belonging to World Central Kitchen near Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of seven aid workers who were managing food shipments. The Hermes 450 can carry four air-to-ground Spike missiles, manufactured by Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael, and some sources claim that it can also carry Lockheed Martin’s Hellfire missiles. This particular attack was consistent with the use of Spike missiles. In 2014, Hermes 450 drones were used to kill four Palestinian children as they played on a beach. They were also used by Israel during its 2006 bombardment of Lebanon, which killed 1,183 people, around one-third of whom were children.

Elbit’s flagship drone, the Hermes 900, was first operationalized in the final days of Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza. An “improved” version of the Hermes 450, the Hermes 900, which is used for both attack and surveillance purposes, has taken part in all of Israel’s major assaults on Gaza since 2014. For example, the Israeli military deployed Hermes 900 drones equipped with Spike MR guided missiles during its 11-day attack on Gaza in 2021, which killed 248 people and injured an additional 1,900.

Deployed during “almost every major mission” carried out by the Israeli military, Elbit’s Skylark tactical drones—operational since 2008—are used alongside Hermes 450 and 900 drones to surveil Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israeli military used the Skylark extensively during its 2014 assault, during which hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were arbitrarily arrested. Posing further dangers, these drones routinely crash, as reported, for example, in 2023 and 2019.

Elbit continues to develop new drones for the needs of the Israeli military, raising concerns that these weapons will also be used against Palestinian civilians. In 2022, for example, the company unveiled its new autonomous LANIUS Legion-X drone, a small, lightweight, drone-based loitering munition designed to carry lethal weapons and “operate in tight urban environments.” Referred to as a “micro-suicide” and “assassin” drone, the LANIUS Legion-X combines surveillance and attack capabilities. The weapon is expected to add “a new dimension of terror for the [Palestinian] civilian population.”

Fighter Jets and Attack Helicopters

Elbit produces integral components and weapons systems for the Israeli military’s main fighter aircraft, including Lockheed Martin F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, Boeing F-15 fighter jets and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. Israel has used these aircraft extensively in its attacks on Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon.

All Israeli Air Force F-16s, manufactured by Lockheed Martin—as well as many other aircraft used by the Israeli military—are equipped with Elbit avionics, including mission computers, display systems, and storage management systems. Many of these systems were developed specifically for the needs of the Israeli military. For example, following an Israeli Air Force helicopter crash in 2010, Elbit developed a new night vision–equipped head-up display (HUD) system, which projects real-time aviation data onto a fighter pilot’s field of vision. The company’s head-up display systems were originally developed for and first used by the Israeli Air Force in the 1990s.

Elbit-equipped F-16s—Israel’s “most important fighter jet”—AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and other fighter aircraft have been used by the Israeli military in all of its major assaults on Gaza, including its 2023–2024 genocidal attacks. During Israel’s 2021 assault on Gaza, for example, F-16s—described as the “mainstay of the bombardment”—were used to bomb Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, residential buildings, and the offices of news organizations including Al Jazeera and The Associated Press. During Israel’s 2008–2009 assault on Gaza, the military used Elbit-outfitted F-16s to target civilians, residential homes, and refugee camps.

Elbit also provides the Israeli Air Force with flight training systems and “mission training centers.” Since 2002, the company has procured, operated, and maintained a fleet of Israeli Air Force training aircraft. In 2023, it was awarded a $180 million contract by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to provide, operate, and maintain a new training center—equipped with simulators that “enable simulation of both current and future battleground environments”—for the Israeli Air Force’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets.

Tanks and Ground Vehicles

Elbit weapons and technologies are integrated into the Israeli military’s main battle tanks, armored fighting and tactical vehicles, and personnel carriers. These ground vehicles have played an integral role in Israel’s assaults on Gaza and in maintaining the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Since the early 2000s,  Elbit has developed and manufactured weapons and technologies for Merkava tanks, the main battle tanks used by the Israeli military. The company manufactures, for example, 120mm ammunition for the Merkava 3 and 4 tanks and head-mounted display helmet technology that is integrated into the Merkava 5 (Barak) tank, first operationalized by the Israeli military during its 2023 ground invasion of Gaza. Elbit has stated in its marketing materials that its 120mm ammunition is “highly lethal” and that it renders the Merkava especially suitable for “urban warfare.”

The Israeli military routinely uses “super-armored” Merkava tanks to carry out attacks on Gaza and to patrol the Gaza–Israel border. In 2020, for example, the Israeli military used a Merkava tank to open fire on the Gaza–Israel border in an unauthorized attack. Two years prior, the Israeli military used Merkava tanks to fire at Palestinian protestors during Great March of Return demonstrations. These tanks also played a critical role in Israel’s 2014 and 2012 assaults on Gaza. On other occasions, the Israeli military used Merkava tanks to accompany armored bulldozers in razing agricultural land and demolishing homes in Gaza.

Elbit also supplies the Israeli military with battle tank–related training. In 2023, for example, Elbit was awarded a $107 million contract to provide, operate, and maintain a new Main Battle Tank (MBT) simulation and training center for the Israeli military’s Armored Corps.

Naval Weapons

Elbit-manufactured electronic warfare technologies are integrated into all of the Israeli Navy’s surface vessels. Elbit also provides weapons and technologies to the Israeli Navy’s fleet of missile ships and patrol boats. For example, it supplies the Israeli Navy with electronic warfare systems for its Sa’ar 6-class corvettes—heavily armed missile ships that are outfitted with more than 20 sensors and weapons. Additionally, the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar 4.5- and 5-class missile ships are outfitted with Elbit rocket launchers and other Elbit-made weapon systems.

Elbit-equipped Israeli warships and patrol boats play a critical role in maintaining Israel’s illegal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. In 2016, Palestinian fishermen in Gaza, who are restricted by Israel to severely limited fishing areas, reported being fired at by the Israeli Navy on an almost-daily basis. A Sa’ar warship was also used by the Israeli Navy during its 2010 assault on the Mavi Marmara or Free Gaza Flotilla, an unarmed Turkish aid ship that was used in an attempt to deliver supplies to Gaza. In what the International Criminal Court labeled war crimes, Israeli commandos raided the ship and killed nine activists.

Forced Displacement of Palestinians

Elbit’s acquisition of Israeli state-owned IMI Systems has contributed to the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins. In 2020, the company contracted with Israeli engineering company Baran Group to plan and manage the relocation of IMI’s Ramat HaSharon plant to Ramat Beka in the Naqab/Negev. The relocation is part of the Israeli government’s larger plan to establish a military training area and weapons testing facility in the region. The establishment of this military industrial zone is expected to forcibly displace 36,000 Palestinian Bedouins; lead to the demolition of over 2,000 buildings, including 1,200 Bedouin homes; and expose Bedouin communities in the region to serious health risks. In August 2024, during Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Defense reportedly purchased $340 million worth of ammunition from Elbit. As part of the transaction, Elbit will construct a new factory for producing armaments in Ramat Beka.

Elbit has been the primary provider of electronic detection systems and related surveillance technologies for Israel’s “smart walls.” The company has also provided technology for military checkpoints and has supplied the Israeli military with armed ground vehicles used to surveil Israel’s borders.

Elbit has been deeply involved in maintaining Israel’s border surveillance industry since 2002, when Israel began building its illegal separation wall in the occupied West Bank. That year, Elbit subsidiary Ortek was awarded a $5 million contract to build a “smart” electronic barrier around part of Jerusalem, thereby cutting off Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents from the occupied West Bank. In 2006, Ortek was awarded an additional $17 million to deploy a “smart” electronic deterrence system—consisting of an electronic fence, communications systems, and computerized command and control posts—along segments of the separation wall.

Elbit was the main contractor for providing “smart” sensors for Israel’s wall around the Gaza Strip. In 2021, Israel completed an underground “smart wall,” comprised of hundreds of surveillance cameras, radars, and motion detection sensors, around Gaza. Led by Elbit and several subcontractors, this “smart tech” militarization project began in 2017 as part of Israel’s bid to prevent underground activity along the Gaza–Israel border. In addition to these high-tech components, the wall also consists of 20-foot-tall aboveground concrete barriers and reinforced concrete slabs that reach 130 feet below ground.

Elbit also develops autonomous ground vehicles for the Israeli military, which uses them to surveil Israel’s border walls. In 2016, the company developed the Border Protector Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), a Ford F-350 pickup truck equipped with autonomous driving technology and surveillance cameras, for the Israeli military. That year, Israel deployed the vehicles along the Gaza–Israel border, thus becoming the “first country to deploy autonomous vehicles in a border area.” These vehicles replaced the Israeli military’s previous border patrol vehicles, the Guardium UGV. Co-developed by Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries, Guardium vehicles have been used by the Israeli military to surveil the Gaza–Israel border “around the clock.”

More recently, in 2022, Elbit unveiled its new Medium Robotic Combat Vehicle (M-RCV), an unmanned robotic vehicle equipped with a “robust and lethal platform,” including a gun turret, anti-tank missile launching capabilities, and a built-in system for receiving and transporting military surveillance drones. It is expected that, like the Israeli military’s other UGVs, these weaponized ground vehicles will be deployed along Israel’s borders.

Elbit has provided its surveillance technologies—“field-proven” on Palestinians and installed along Israel’s border walls—to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) since 2006. The company provides U.S. immigration authorities with fixed and mobile/relocatable surveillance systems, ground sensors, drones, Border Patrol command and control platforms, and other technologies. In 2019, it was named one of 14 “giants in the [U.S.] border security business” from 2006–2018. That same year, a company executive stated that the company’s ultimate goal is to “build a ‘layer’ of electronic surveillance equipment across the entire perimeter of the U.S.”

In 2006, Elbit acted as a Boeing subcontractor on CBP’s Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) project, which attempted to create a “virtual wall” along the entire U.S.–Mexico border. As part of the project, Elbit provided Integrated Fixed Towers (IFTs) for deployment along stretches of the border in Arizona. These 160-foot surveillance towers are outfitted with high-definition cameras, sensors, and advanced radars capable of detecting individuals and vehicles up to 7.5 miles away. Providing “constant 24/7 surveillance” along portions of the border, these surveillance towers send real-time data to Border Patrol agents at an Elbit-powered Torch command and control station.

In 2011, after spending nearly $1 billion and deploying SBInet systems along 53 miles of the U.S.–Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) canceled the project, citing concerns about performance, cost, and scheduling delays.

Despite the cancellation, DHS decided to keep and expand Elbit’s technologies along the border, awarding the company a nine-year, $145 million contract in 2014 to continue deploying IFTs along the U.S.–Mexico border in Arizona. CBP expanded the program in 2019 when it awarded Elbit another $26 million contract to install additional IFTs in Arizona. As of 2024, between 50 and 60 Elbit-made IFTs are deployed along the U.S.–Mexico border, exclusively in Arizona.  

The later additional towers were erected on the Tohono O’odham reservation, whose territory covers 62 miles of the U.S.–Mexico border. The reservation’s tribal council initially supported the surveillance project, partially in an attempt to dissuade the government from building additional physical border wall segments across their lands, as reported by The Intercept. In 2017, however, a governing council passed a resolution against the Elbit-made towers, citing residents’ opposition to being placed under constant surveillance and their desire to protect ceremonial lands, burial sites, and harvesting grounds.

In 2022, CBP began planning a drastic expansion of surveillance towers along the U.S.–Mexico border, as reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The 10-year project, referred to as the Integrated Surveillance Tower (IST)/Consolidated Tower & Surveillance Equipment (CTSE) program, intends to create a unified system that includes both Elbit’s IFTs and the smaller mobile Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSSs), made by General Dynamics. Between 2023 and 2033, CBP plans to deploy 307 new surveillance towers along the U.S.–Mexico border in Texas and California, and an additional 29 towers in Michigan, New York, Vermont, and Washington. It is not clear how many of these new towers will be Elbit IFTs and how many will be General Dynamics RVSSs. In 2023, DHS awarded Elbit a $23 million contract for acquiring “medium and long-range surveillance towers.”

CBP selected Elbit Systems, along with General Dynamics and privately owned Advanced Technology Systems Company (ATSC), to modernize and expand its surveillance tower systems from 2024–2038. 

Border patrol agencies in the U.S. and abroad have also used Elbit drones. In 2019, the company began operating a maritime drone patrol service under a contract between the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and Portuguese engineering company CEiiA. Elbit’s Hermes 900 drones patrol the Mediterranean Sea as part of the European Union’s bid to enhance “border control and surveillance” and “seal off access to migrants from North Africa.”

CBP previously piloted a drone program in 2004, using Elbit’s Hermes 450 drones, to test the feasibility of drone use along the U.S.–Mexico border in Arizona. Under a lease contract, Elbit provided the agency with UAVs, ground control stations, operational crews, and support personnel. During this pilot program, CBP reportedly tested the Hermes 450 drone for 700 hours and used it to help carry out arrests of 965 immigrants. The agency’s current drone fleet, however, is provided by General Atomics and is not based on Elbit’s drones.

Elbit manufactures several weapons that are largely banned—or considered particularly “controversial”—under the laws of war. These weapons include cluster munitions, weaponized white phosphorus, and flechette projectiles.

Elbit subsidiary IMI Systems has a documented history of producing cluster munitions. The use of these weapons is prohibited under a 2008 international treaty, signed by 111 countries, for two main reasons, according to Human Rights Watch. First, cluster munitions contain bomblets or submunitions that spread indiscriminately “over a wide area, which can be devastating for civilians.” Second, cluster munitions often fail to explode on initial impact, leaving behind unexploded components that, “like landmines, can kill and maim for years to come.” Notably, Israel and the U.S. are not signatories to the treaty.

While Elbit declared that it would stop its production of cluster munitions and has denied producing them since 2018, several major financial institutions divested from the company as recently as 2022 due to its production or marketing of these weapons. Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, for example, banned investment in Elbit in 2022 over the company’s production of cluster munitions. In 2021, Norway’s largest pension fund company, KLP, excluded Elbit from its portfolio after concluding that “[i]t is clear that the company produces cluster munitions,” and in 2019 HSBC divested from the company, citing its “long-standing defense policy whereby [it does] not invest in companies linked to the production or marketing of cluster munitions.”

In 2006, the Israeli military carried out “indiscriminate and disproportionate cluster munition attacks on Lebanon,” in violation of international human rights law. According to Human Rights Watch, Israel illegally fired as many as 4.6 million submunitions across southern Lebanon, resulting in mass-scale destruction of towns and villages, and “leaving bomblets that have killed and maimed almost 200 people since the war ended.” Despite cluster munitions being implicated in war crimes, Israel purchased Elbit-made artillery cannons capable of firing cluster bombs in 2017. The Israeli government purchased these weapons from Elbit rather than its previous supplier, German weapons manufacturer KMW, over concerns that Germany would prohibit the Israeli military from using them to fire cluster munitions.

Elbit previously manufactured white phosphorus munitions until at least 2012, when it stopped reporting on them in its financial statements. White phosphorus munitions are incendiary weapons that produce heat and fire through a chemical reaction; when they come into contact with the skin, they can cause “excruciating burns, sometimes to the bone” and “respiratory damage, infection, shock, and organ failure.” The use of white phosphorus munitions has been highlighted as being particularly controversial due to the weapons’ “‘indiscriminate and uncontrollable’ harm to civilians.”

The Israeli military used white phosphorus munitions in its attacks on Gaza in 2008–2009. During the attacks, the Israeli military used 155mm artillery to indiscriminately and repeatedly fire white phosphorus munitions into densely populated urban areas, in what Human Rights Watch labeled war crimes. The military carried out, for example, a white phosphorus attack on a U.N. school in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, killing two children and injuring several others. Other attacks killed at least 10 more civilians; injured dozens more; and damaged civilian infrastructure, including markets, humanitarian aid centers, schools, and hospitals.

Over the years, Elbit has adapted its military products for the civilian market. In 2023, the company announced plans to adapt its drones for civilian applications. For instance, it converted its Hermes 900 drone to be used by “governments, as well as international and commercial organizations” for “security and environmental protection” purposes. Similarly, Elbit’s Hermes 450 drone has been used for precision agriculture in, for example, North Dakota, where it monitored and collected data from large crop fields.

In 2017, Elbit subsidiary Everysight launched a line of smartglasses called the Raptor AR. Modeled after Elbit’s military head-up display systems, the augmented reality glasses are marketed primarily to cyclists and triathletes. According to Everysight, the glasses “bring the fighter jet pilot AR experience to regular consumers.” Three years before, Elbit unveiled the Skylens, a wearable head-up display designed for commercial pilots. Like the Raptor AR smartglasses, the Skylens was modeled after head-up display systems used by the Israeli military.

Elbit is also active in the commercial automotive industry. In 2016, the company established a subsidiary to develop electric batteries for civilian transportation applications. Previously, Elbit developed fast-charging electric batteries for the Israeli military. The company entered the automotive industry in 2011 with the establishment of subsidiary BrightWay Vision, which applied Elbit’s military night vision and laser technologies to the development of BrightEye, a safety “sensing and laser illumination technolog[y]...[used] to generate a clear long-range image of the road ahead at night and in low visibility conditions.”

Other Elbit subsidiaries develop commercial aviation systems; systems for monitoring commercial pipelines; cybersecurity training and simulation products for students and professionals; and diagnostic instruments for the life sciences and medical industries.