Explosive Materials Bound for Israel Are Flying Out of JFK Airport
Americans know that the U.S. government and defense industry exports huge amounts of military goods to Israel — but they may not be aware that in some cases these shipments travel beside them.
On Saturday afternoon, a cargo airplane carrying 14 tons of explosive materials bound for an Israeli weapons manufacturing company is expected to fly out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Saturday afternoon, according to air cargo documents reviewed by The Intercept.
The explosive material, grade A nitrocellulose, is a widely used industrial material that plays a key role in making ammunition — from sniper bullets to rockets. According to the air cargo documents obtained by journalists at Irish news site The Ditch and researchers with the Palestinian Youth Movement, 51 pallets of nitrocellulose are expected to be delivered to the Israeli weapons manufacturing company IMI Systems, headquartered outside of Tel Aviv in the city of Ramat Hasharon. The main client of IMI Systems, previously known as Israeli Military Industries, is the Israel Defense Forces.
Saturday's cargo flight is the largest single shipment of explosives to pass through NYC's busiest airport.
The cargo flight by Challenge Airlines Israel is scheduled to depart from JFK at 2 p.m. on Saturday and land in Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday, according to flight information. The manufacturer of the materials is not known, but the cargo's sender is listed as deriving from a Los Angeles ZIP code. While other weapons-related shipments have been sent from JFK to Israel, Saturday's cargo flight is the first confirmed shipment of nitrocellulose and the largest single shipment of explosives to pass through New York City's busiest airport, said journalist and lawyer Roman Shortall, co-founder of The Ditch.
Previously, The Ditch has reported on other military equipment flown out of the JFK airport, including ammunition propellants, detonating fuses, tear gas, F-35 combat jet parts, and firearms. Explosive materials, however, typically have been shipped in smaller amounts in separate flights, Shortall said. The concentrated amounts of nitrocellulose on Saturday are notable and prompt safety concerns for both civilians and workers at the New York airport, the researchers said.
'Over almost two years of genocide in Gaza, JFK airport has served as the coordination point for the shipment of ammunition primer, small arms cartridges, detonators, and aircraft parts to sustain the Israeli military,' said Aisha Nizar, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, a Palestinian solidarity group that has chapters across the U.S. and Europe. 'These arms are threats to our communities here in New York, and show yet again, the complete coordination between the Zionist project and the U.S. ruling class, who are currently waging a war of extermination against the Palestinian people.'
IMI Systems' parent company Elbit Systems and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK, did not immediately respond to The Intercept's requests for comment.
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The Israeli military regularly receives billions of dollars' worth in weapons from the U.S., whether transferred from U.S. military stockpiles or bought directly from U.S. defense companies. During the first year of Israel's war on Gaza, the U.S. military sent $17.9 billion in aid to Israel. The majority of Israeli military aid from the U.S. comes through grants for Israel to spend on buying new military weapons and materials directly from U.S. companies, which helps fuel the country's weapons industry.
Researchers with the Palestine Youth Movement have previously uncovered sea shipments of ammunition and other material to Israel from the U.S. Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, or MOTSU, in North Carolina, including a Department of Defense shipment last year that violated Spain's arms embargo on Israel. A separate Israel-bound shipment of military goods by Danish shipping giant Maersk, which typically ships from Port Elizabeth in New Jersey, also violated the Spanish embargo.
A media investigation into Challenge Air by Belgian news outlet RTBF has also shown the airline has transported weapons from the JFK airport to Brussels, then to Tel Aviv.
Researchers with the Palestinian Youth Movement expressed safety concerns for workers and civilians posed by the highly flammable explosive materials. A U.S. Army report cited by the group described nitrocellulose as explosively equivalent to TNT. The group also pointed to China's Tianjin Port explosion in 2015 caused by nitrocellulose stockpiles, which had spontaneously combusted, killing 173 people and injuring more than 700 others. Both passenger flights and cargo flights at JFK share the same runways. Cargo flights can also be taxied to the runway while passing civilian planes and terminals.
Since Hamas's attack on Israel in 2023, the Israeli military has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians in its incursion on Gaza, which has escalated in recent months after Israel broke its ceasefire agreement in March. Israel's war cabinet recently announced plans for the Israeli military to indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and displace Palestinians from the territory. It comes amid an Israeli blockade on all humanitarian aid — food, water, fuel, and medical supplies — in violation of humanitarian law.
The final destination for Saturday's shipment of nitrocellulose — the Elbit-owned IMI Systems — is known to manufacture a wide range of weapons, such as combat vehicles, rifles, missiles, rocket launchers, and cluster munitions. Nitrocellulose is also used in industrial and medical materials, including paint or aluminum foil, and in medical settings to create topical ointments.
Other companies ship weapons and military materials through JFK, including Lockheed Martin, according to The Ditch. While Challenge Air has been the main airline to fly such military goods out of JFK, U.S. transportation giant FedEx has also transported military goods through the New York airport.
Elbit, Israel's largest arms manufacturer, operates across the globe, including in the U.S, the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland and Brazil. Palestinian solidarity activists in the U.S. have protested at Elbit facilities in Virginia and South Carolina, as well as a factory in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where four women attempted to halt production.
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