Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on April 14, 2026, that Rome will suspend the automatic renewal of its bilateral defense cooperation agreement with Israel, freezing joint military training, equipment exchanges, and defense industrial collaboration.
“In light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel,” Meloni said on the sidelines of the Vinitaly event in Verona.
The memorandum was signed in 2003 and ratified by parliament in 2005. It has been renewed automatically every five years since.
From trainer jets to surveillance aircraft
The pact provided a framework for cooperation in military equipment and technology research, as well as the import, export, and transit of military material. It also covered armed forces training, defense procurement policy, and military agreements between private companies in both countries, subject to government authorization.
The agreement had underpinned several reciprocal procurement deals over the past decade. In 2012, Israel bought 30 Leonardo M-346 trainer aircraft, while Italy acquired from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) an OPTSAT-3000 reconnaissance satellite and two G550 CAEW airborne early warning aircraft.
Those CAEW jets later became a key Italian Air Force asset, logging more than 4,362 flight hours and supporting 650 military operations between 2020 and 2022, including NATO surveillance missions near the Romania-Moldova-Ukraine border.
In September 2020, the two sides completed another reciprocal deal under which Israel bought 12 AW119Kx training helicopters from Leonardo, while Italy acquired Spike missile launchers and missiles from Rafael, along with helicopter simulators from Elbit Systems.
The suspension does not affect existing contracts or deliveries already underway. Italy had already halted new arms export licenses to Israel in October 2024, while continuing to execute orders approved before the Gaza war.
The deterioration in ties has not been limited to Italy. At the end of March 2026, Israel also said it would reduce defense procurement from France to zero, a move with limited practical effect given the relatively small scale of arms sales between the two countries.
Lebanon tensions raise pressure on European nations
The suspension comes as Italy faces mounting political pressure over its ties with Israel, against the backdrop of escalating violence in Lebanon.
On April 8, 2026, Israeli forces fired warning shots at a convoy of Italian UNIFIL peacekeepers traveling from Shama to Beirut, damaging at least one vehicle. No injuries were reported, but the incident prompted Rome to summon Israel’s ambassador.
Then on April 13, 2026, Israel summoned Italy’s ambassador in response after Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani condemned what he called “unacceptable attacks” on civilians in Lebanon during a visit to Beirut.
The episode came amid a broader deterioration in relations between Israel and European troop contributors in southern Lebanon. The incident with Italian peacekeepers came a day after Israeli forces briefly detained a Spanish peacekeeper during the stop of a UNIFIL logistics convoy in southern Lebanon. France had already condemned what it described as “absolutely unacceptable intimidation” of its UNIFIL contingent following three incidents involving French peacekeepers on March 28, 2026, with French officials saying their troops had been subjected to intimidation by Israeli forces.
Italy has 754 troops in UNIFIL, the second-largest contingent after Indonesia.
