From Tel Aviv to Belgrade and then back to Tel Aviv.
This was the route of an Israeli transport plane on March 5, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty found through an analysis of specialized flight tracking websites.
The aircraft was intended for transporting heavy and dangerous cargo, such as weapons.
However, it is not clear what it was transporting, as the responsible institutions have not provided clarification.
This is not the only time that a transport plane from the private Israeli company "Challenge Airlines IL" has landed in Belgrade in the last month.
REL has discovered that during February and early March, two transport aircraft of this company made at least nine flights between Serbia and Israel, in both directions.
Two of these flights were recorded after the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran.
Radio Free Europe asked the Serbian Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Trade about these flights and what was transported on them, but received no response.
The Israeli company that owns the transport aircraft did not respond either.
Serbia suspended arms exports at the end of June last year, following an instruction from President Aleksandar Vucic.
This happened at the height of the Israeli-Iranian conflict and amid accusations from Moscow that Serbia, through intermediaries, was exporting ammunition to Ukraine.
But, according to information confirmed to Radio Free Europe by two state-owned arms factories, arms exports outside Serbia resumed in February.
Despite REL's continued efforts, state institutions in Serbia have not revealed what they export, to whom, and under what conditions.
According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, in 2025, Serbia exported weapons and ammunition worth about $50 million.
This is half the amount recorded in 2024, when exports, according to the same data, exceeded $104 million.
However, these are not final amounts, as the exact data is not publicly available.
Serbia, for years now, has not published what weapons and military equipment it exports, to whom, and in what quantities.
What do they say at Belgrade Airport?
Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport does not provide details about what was transported by cargo planes that flew from Belgrade to Tel Aviv and vice versa in February and March.
In its response to Radio Free Europe, it is stated that the airport allows airlines to use its infrastructure "in accordance with international and national regulations governing the transport of passengers and various types of cargo in air traffic."
It is not clear who hired the private Israeli airline, as the relevant ministries did not respond to Radio Free Europe's questions.
Israel's Challenge Airlines describes itself as an airline specializing in transporting "non-standard cargo."
According to data from its website, it owns three Boeing aircraft intended for cargo traffic.
The company reportedly offers regular services between Tel Aviv and European countries, as well as the United States, via Liege Airport in Belgium.
It also says it has various security licenses for air cargo transport, issued by the European Union, the US, China and other countries.
It emphasizes that it is trained to transport a variety of goods – from food to explosives, medicines and large machinery.
Since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East in late February, a large part of international air traffic in that region has been suspended and the flow of goods has been significantly reduced.
However, Challenge Airlines continues to fly to Israel and provide cargo services.
Earlier, in November 2024, Belgian media reported that this airline had filed complaints against federal and regional regulations in Belgium that restrict the transport of weapons and military equipment to Israel.
According to them, Challenge Airlines denied at the time that it was transporting weapons, claiming that it was sending humanitarian aid and food to Israel.
What is happening in the Middle East?
The United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28.
Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and other senior officials were killed, while many targets in the country were hit.
Tehran is retaliating by launching drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, where the US has military bases.
The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain are targeted.
The plane also landed in June 2025
Radio Free Europe monitored the flights of two cargo planes of the company "Challenge Airlines", with registration marks 4X-IAJ and 4X-ICK, which arrived at Belgrade Airport.
One of them, the 4X-ICK plane, landed in Belgrade in June 2025, at the time of the introduction of the arms export embargo.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić refused to answer questions about the plane at the time, stating: "I don't think I can say what took off and what landed."
The website "Flight Radar" recorded the flight history of this plane throughout the past year.
In addition to Belgrade, the same cargo plane has also flown to other European cities and the United States in recent months.
The United States is Israel's largest arms exporter – with shipments worth billions of dollars. Two-thirds of Israel's arms imports come from the US.
From Serbia, according to Vučić's claims, the shipment of ammunition has increased since October 2023.
At that time, Israel was attacked by Hamas – a Palestinian organization that the US and EU consider terrorist.
Israel then launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, which led to mass killings of Palestinian civilians, destruction of cities, and a humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations has accused Israel of serious human rights violations and war crimes.
Even before Belgrade authorities admitted that arms shipments to Israel had accelerated, international teams of investigative journalists reported that arms exports from Serbia to Israel had increased 30-fold since October 2023.
Vučić then became the target of criticism from part of the opposition and the public in Serbia, according to whom he - in this way - aligned himself with the Israeli authorities.
However, after Israel's attack on Iran in June 2025, Vučić assessed that both countries were "friendly" with him, while the Serbian Ministry of Defense announced that the export of weapons and military equipment, according to the president's instructions, has been suspended.
"A whole branch of industry has been banned, since June, without any legal basis... because someone wants it that way," says Serbian military analyst Aleksandar Radic.
He adds that, apart from the announcement by the Ministry of Defense and Vučić's statements, no official document has been published about this "embargo".
Workers at arms factories say exports have resumed
The Serbian state does not confirm that the "moratorium" on exports has been lifted, but employees of two state-owned arms factories in Serbia claim so.
They say that in February 2026 they received a letter stating that, after an eight-month ban, exports abroad would resume.
"The union received information from the leadership that the state has approved part of the export of military weapons," Aleksandar Tadic, head of the union at the "Zastava Oruzhja" factory in Kragujevac, tells Radio Free Europe.
"We don't officially know who the buyers are, from which countries, but this is the first and good step for the factory, because it was in a difficult situation, due to the export ban," says Tadic.
He adds that shipments of sporting hunting weapons, which are also produced at this factory in central Serbia, began "a long time ago" to the United States, which is among the main partners for these shipments.
The management of the Zastava Oruzhja factory did not respond to Radio Free Europe's questions about exports.
In Užice, in western Serbia, where the headquarters of the "Prvi Partizan" weapons factory is located, workers received the same news.
"We received information about a month ago that exports have started; we have no idea where or what it will go," one of the union members of the company "Prvi Partizan" tells Radio Free Europe, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The administration of this factory did not confirm this information to Radio Free Europe.
The headquarters of other state-owned arms production and trade companies, which are members of the Serbian Defense Industry, did not respond either.
Similarly, Serbia's Ministry of Defense did not indicate whether arms exports abroad have resumed and under what conditions.
Did Serbia export weapons during the "moratorium"?
"Since June of last year there is strong evidence that the export has continued, in some exceptional situations, when someone has decided to do it," says military analyst Aleksandar Radiq.
This is also confirmed by the fact that, while a ban on arms exports was in force in Serbia, according to the instructions of the president, Azerbaijan and Cyprus boasted artillery weapons from Serbian factories.
Last year, Azerbaijan displayed the "Nora" self-propelled howitzers, while Cyprus displayed the "Tamnava" rocket launchers.
"Both systems first appeared in the second half of 2025 and it is very possible that they were exported after the 'moratorium' was announced," Katarina Djokic of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) tells Radio Free Europe.
Serbia is obliged to report on the export of heavy and light weapons, in accordance with international conventions. These international reports are published mid-year, for the previous year.
"But most of the exports are not visible there, because large quantities of ammunition (which are not subject to these declarations) are being taken out of Serbia. The value and volume of ammunition exports cannot be seen from these declarations," says Radic.
According to the law, permits for the export of weapons and military equipment are issued by the Serbian Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade.
They require the consent of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Defense, and the Security and Intelligence Agency.
An End User certificate, certified by an official body of the user's country, is also required.
When issuing a permit, care is taken to ensure that the export does not violate international sanctions, does not threaten respect for human rights in the country of final destination, and does not enable the outbreak or continuation of armed and other conflicts in the country of final use. /REL/
t7 live
