A Polish state-owned company has been accused of playing a crucial role in aiding Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, providing a key explosive used in bombs and artillery that have been widely deployed in the Strip.
A report released on Tuesday by a group of pro-Palestinian organisations found the explosives maker Nitro-Chem to have supplied United States arms companies with trinitrotoluene (TNT) for use in military shells, bombs, and grenades that are exported to Israel, a top US ally.
Poland, the only major TNT producer in the EU and NATO, was identified by the People’s Embargo for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Shadow World Investigations and Movement Research Unit as the source of the explosive used in the general-purpose Mk 80 series – among the most common air-dropped weapons in the world – as well as the penetrator BLU-109 bomb.
“This report decisively implicates Nitro-Chem and the Polish government as a critical link in facilitating the supply chain of genocide,” Nadya Tannous, an organiser with the Palestinian Youth Movement, told Al Jazeera.
Air-dropped bombs are typically filled with an explosive mix of TNT and aluminium powder. Ninety percent of TNT imported by the US – where there is no domestic production – comes from Poland, the report found. Nitro-Chem has also been selling explosives, including TNT, directly to Israel, according to the report.
While UN experts have found Israel to be committing genocidal acts in Gaza and called on all states to fulfil their legal obligations under the Genocide Convention, the report is evidence of Poland’s role “in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians”, said Tannous.
Surviving Israeli bombs in Gaza
Since launching its latest war on Gaza in October 2023, following the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel, the Israeli army has relied heavily on guided and unguided Mk 80 bombs sold by General Dynamics, the world’s fifth-largest weapons manufacturer.
Video evidence of unexploded Mk 84 bombs – the largest of the series – with markings indicating that the bomb was produced by General Dynamics – confirms that they have been used in the Strip.
Israel is known to have used unguided bombs of the Mk 80 series in the targeting of Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on October 31, 2023, which could amount to a war crime, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
These were also converted into guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), such as the one used to strike civilian homes in Deir el-Balah on October 10, 2023. Amnesty International, which investigated that attack, called the strikes unlawful and tantamount to a war crime.
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Strip – equivalent to two nuclear bombs – in the first month of the war.
As fighting intensified, Mahmoud (*not his real name) was sleeping alongside his wife and children in their home in southern Gaza when a loud explosion shook the earth. The walls collapsed on them, and a fire broke out among the rubble. The family was rescued and taken to the hospital.
“After I left the hospital, I didn’t have any shoes, so I walked barefoot on the pieces of glass, rubble, cement and metal,” he said. “I didn’t feel anything, I just stood there for hours and stared at the pile of rubble that, a few hours ago, was our home.”
Thirteen of his relatives were killed in the bombing, including seven children. Mahmoud has since been able to leave Gaza and relocate to Europe with the surviving members of his family.
Footage from the scene shows shrapnel compatible with the Mk 80 bomb series, according to military analysts. Al Jazeera is withholding details of the incident, as well as of the survivor’s identity, to reduce the risk of reprisal or retaliation.
While the family is now miles away, the memories of what they experienced in Gaza have followed them.
“The bombing has been haunting our family every day since. It left all of us traumatised,” Mahmoud said.
Finding out that Poland likely provided the explosive that tore his family apart has left him shaken.
“I feel sadness and disappointment that a country, which advocates for human rights and humanitarianism, has forgotten that there are human beings in the Gaza Strip bombed every day – humans no different than people in Europe,” he said.
“These bombs are used mainly to [target] residential homes, tents made out of plastic sheets, civilian infrastructure … They have a wide effect, they are not precise, and they destroy everything around,” Mahmoud continued.
The Mk 84 has enormous destructive capacity, with a lethal radius of about 360 metres (about 1,180 feet) and an injury radius of up to 800 metres (2,625 feet) from the point of detonation.
“How is it possible that Poland agrees to produce and sell explosive material, knowing it will be used against civilians?” he said.
Al Jazeera has contacted Nitro-Chem and representatives of the Polish government for comment.
Polish TNT for American bombs
General Dynamics has been sourcing TNT for Mk 80 series bomb production from Nitro-Chem since at least 2016.
Polish-made TNT also ended up in the penetrator BLU-109 bomb, which can destroy underground and heavily fortified targets, according to information provided to the authors of the report by the bomb’s US manufacturer, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS), the Polish company Nitro-Chem and US government databases.
The company’s dealings with the US and Israel have continued despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering emergency measures in January 2024 to prevent genocidal acts and recognising genocide as a plausible risk.
In April 2024, Nitro-Chem signed a contract with Paramount Enterprises International to supply TNT for Mk 80 series bombs and, shortly after, the US government approved the transfer of 1,800 Mk 84 bombs to Israel.
Most recently, in April 2025, the company signed its largest contract yet – worth $310m – for the delivery of 18,000 tonnes of TNT in between 2027 and 2029, the report found.
Destruction from Poland to Gaza
The US does not make TNT, a toxic substance that has grave environmental impacts and is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a possible carcinogen.
In Poland, the Supreme Audit Office found Nitro-Chem’s TNT contributed to the pollution of the country’s largest and most ecologically significant river, the Vistula. Polish media accused the company of disposing of toxic waste in illegal dumping sites.
In Gaza, two years of conflict have caused unprecedented levels of environmental damage, damaging its soil, freshwater supplies and coastline, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Much of Gaza’s vegetation has been destroyed, rendering food production minimal at a time when famine threatens more than 500,000 people. About 80 percent of Gaza’s estimated 250,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, generating 61 million tonnes of debris, UNEP found. According to the agency, it will take decades to reverse the damage.
Tannous, one of the report’s authors, expressed hope that public pressure might prompt the government in Warsaw to change course.
“Now, as the masses of people in Europe rise in their millions to end government complicity in Israel’s genocide, we call on Poland to end its shipment of Nitro-Chem TNT to Israel,” she said.
