Polish company Nitro-Chem is complicit in the genocide in Gaza through the sale and delivery of thousands of tonnes of TNT used in bombs deployed by Israeli occupation forces, according to a new report published by the People’s Embargo for Palestine initiative. “Without Polish-made TNT, the unprecedented scale and intensity of aerial bombardment that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed the conditions of life in Gaza – including hospitals, schools, markets and refugee camps – would not be possible,” the campaign wrote.

According to sources quoted in the report, including Nitro-Chem’s own communications and US procurement records, around 90% of TNT used in US arms production comes from Poland. And while a large amount of this has been used in US-made bombs supplied to Israel – contributing to the unprecedented destruction the occupation entity has unleashed since October 2023 – the People’s Embargo for Palestine also found that the company has previously engaged in direct sales to Israeli companies. Between 2017 and 2020, the report shows, Nitro-Chem sold TNT and other explosives to Elbit Systems, Rafael, and IMI Systems, involving the company in the everyday violence committed against Palestinians.

NATO’s main producer of TNT

A state-owned enterprise and the largest TNT producer among NATO and European Union members, Nitro-Chem has long been essential to the production of US aerial munitions, including MK-80 series bombs used by NATO countries. “All MK-80s are fragmentation bombs, meaning they can cause damage both through the explosive blast and the shrapnel generated by their thick metal casings,” according to the People’s Embargo for Palestine.

Israel has relied on the MK-80 series since the 1970s, deploying them in Lebanon, Syria, and repeatedly in Gaza. The largest in the series, the 907-kg MK-84, is among the most destructive bombs of its kind used by the US and its partners. The shockwave from an MK-84 can create craters roughly 15 meters wide and 11 meters deep; it can cause severe injuries within an 800-meter radius, including lung rupture and severed limbs.

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Between October 2023 and August 2024, MK-84s made up two-thirds of the 50,000 ordnance Israel dropped on Gaza, the report emphasizes. “Israel’s massive reliance on MK-84s, despite their enormous destructive power and high risk of numerous casualties, is unprecedented in modern warfare,” it states. In addition to that, many of the bombs used in the first eight weeks of the genocide – around 10,000 – were unguided, further increasing the likelihood of human deaths and the destruction of key infrastructure.

Fueling genocide and environmental destruction

None of this would have been possible without Nitro-Chem’s products. The Polish firm supplies most of the TNT needed to manufacture tritonal, the TNT–aluminum mixture used to fill MK-80 series bombs and other munitions made by US arms manufacturers. Because TNT production carries enormous environmental costs, manufacturing in the United States and other Western states has largely ceased. Polish authorities, however, have shown little hesitation in maintaining production, even as evidence has emerged of widespread pollution in local communities. Two years ago, the report notes, “Polish media revealed that there were illegal dumps all over Poland for the yellow and red water produced when making TNT, some of which was labelled as waste from the Nitro-Chem factory.”

This pollution has helped sustain a profitable arms industry in Poland, with Nitro-Chem securing millions of dollars in revenue through long-term contracts with foreign partners. These include US-based Paramount Enterprises International, which has overseen large-scale TNT shipments across the Atlantic, and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, which has used Polish TNT for filling bombs. Driven by US Department of Defense contracts, the campaign reports, “about 50,000 tons of Polish TNT have been shipped to the US arms market over the past dozen of years.”

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Cooperation between Nitro-Chem and US entities involved in weapons production and transfers to Israel continued throughout the genocide. “In April 2025, Nitro-Chem signed its largest contract yet, worth USD 310 million, and covering the delivery of 18,000 tonnes of TNT in 2027–2029, allowing the US and Israel to continue its ultimate goal: the complete annihilation of the Palestinian people,” the People’s Embargo for Palestine remarks.

The initiative warns that supplying TNT used in the genocide in Gaza makes Nitro-Chem and the Polish authorities complicit in international crimes, and demands an immediate end to these transfers. Failure to do so, they caution, could meet the legal threshold for aiding and abetting genocide.

The post Polish TNT powers bombs dropped on Gaza, report finds appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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