Arms imports by Middle Eastern countries fell by 20% between 2020-24 compared to 2015-19. Four of the top 10 global importers in 2020-24 were from the Middle East: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait.
Qatar was the world's third-largest arms importer in 2020-24 (up from tenth place in 2015-2019). During 2020-24, Saudi Arabia's arms imports fell by 41% compared to the previous four-year period.
More than half of arms imports to the Middle East came from the US (52%), while 13% came from Italy, 9.8% from France, and 7.6% from Germany.
Despite the ongoing war in Gaza, Israel's arms imports remained largely stable between 2020-24 compared to 2015-2019.
The United States provided the largest share of arms imports to Israel (66%), followed by Germany (33%) and Italy (1%).
Israel was the 15th largest arms importer in the world in 2020-24, down from 14th place in 2015-2019.