A-Infos (en) Poland, FA: Polish TNT Kills Palestinians. About the report "The Missing Ingredient: Polish TNT" and the social embargo on Palestine (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

When Muin Al-Hatto returned to Gaza with her children in October 2025, a 
deadly surprise awaited them at their home. A one-ton aerial bomb, which 
had penetrated the roof and ceilings, was lodged in the living room 
wall. Thanks to the unexploded bomb, it was possible to determine that 
the bomb dropped by the Israeli Air Force was a Mk 84 bomb, manufactured 
at the General Dynamics plant in Texas in January 2025.
The Mk 84 penetrates up to 3.5 meters of concrete, and its explosion 
removes several tons of earth. If it had detonated, it would have left a 
crater several meters wide in the house, and no one within a radius of 
several hundred meters would have had a chance of survival. It was this 
weapon that became one of the primary tools of the Israeli genocide in 
the Gaza Strip, the confirmed death toll currently exceeding 70,000.

In light of the findings of the report "The Missing Ingredient: Polish 
TNT," it is almost certain that the bomb contained Polish TNT. The 
report's authors indicate that TNT shipments from Nitro-Chem in 
Bydgoszcz to the American arms industry enabled the bombing of Gaza on 
an unprecedented scale, making Poland a key, albeit secondary, actor in 
the genocide.

Genocide with American Bombs

The Mk 84 is the heaviest general-purpose aerial bomb used by NATO 
countries and their allies, including Israel. Manufactured exclusively 
in the United States since the Vietnam War, it has been used in the 
Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and repeatedly in Gaza.

Between October 2023 and August 2024, the Israeli Air Force dropped 
approximately 50,000 bombs, rockets, and missiles on the Gaza Strip. 
Over 30,000 of these were heavy Mk 84 bombs, often lacking guidance 
systems and dropped blindly.

In one of the world's most densely populated urban areas, this meant 
massive civilian casualties and the systematic destruction of living 
conditions. Over 95% of schools and 84% of healthcare facilities were 
destroyed. Bombs fell hundreds of times in the immediate vicinity of 
hospitals. In October 2023, in the Jabalia camp, several Mk 84s killed 
at least 126 people, including dozens of children. In the al-Mawasi 
"humanitarian zone," the simultaneous drop of several Mk 84 bombs led to 
a massacre, some of the victims remaining unidentified.

Gaza - Hiroshima, Poland - Congo

Researchers from the University of Bradford estimate that in the first 
year of the bombing, Israel dropped approximately 70,000 tons of TNT 
equivalent on Gaza - an energy comparable to many times the energy of 
the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The US nuclear program 
also relied on a global supply chain of raw materials. Uranium came from 
Belgian mines in colonized Congo. In today's weapons system, Poland 
plays a similar role as a raw material source, and Nitro-Chem is a key 
link in this chain.

The state-owned company is the largest producer of TNT in the European 
Union and the only NATO factory certified to produce TNT for military 
purposes. Approximately 90% of production is destined for the US market, 
which has lacked its own production capacity since the 1980s. 
Nitro-Chem's collaboration with General Dynamics, based primarily on the 
Mk 84 program, has been ongoing since at least 2016. By the end of 2023, 
Poland had exported approximately 50,000 tons of TNT to American defense 
companies.

Between October 2023 and July 2024 alone, the United States transferred 
at least 14,000 Mk 84 bombs based on Polish TNT to Israel. In February 
2025, the Israeli government requested another 35,500 - a number 
comparable to Gaza's current consumption. For the American defense 
industry and its suppliers, genocide has become a sustainable business 
model. Nitro-Chem's latest contract, signed in April 2025, was worth 
$310 million.

Ecocide on the Periphery

The neocolonial analogy between Gaza and Hiroshima also has an 
environmental dimension. In the Congo, uranium mining led to the 
permanent contamination of land and water, the costs of which were borne 
by local communities. The contemporary arms supply chain replicates this 
pattern in a different geography.

TNT is carcinogenic, and most Western countries have phased out its 
production. In Poland, TNT production is associated with the emission of 
toxic "red" and "yellow" waters. Supreme Audit Office (NIK) inspections 
revealed discharges into the Vistula River, and journalistic 
investigations revealed illegal landfills where thousands of tons of 
this waste were dumped by the garbage mafia. Chemical production in 
Legnów, Bydgoszcz, has been ongoing since World War II, making this area 
one of the most industrially contaminated in Europe.

In Gaza, the bombings destroyed water and agricultural systems, and the 
detonations left behind tens of millions of tons of rubble contaminated 
with heavy metals and explosive residue. Ecocide is not a side effect of 
war, but the logical consequence of a system in which land and people 
become disposable resources, secondary to geopolitical and financial 
interests.

A Leaky Security Umbrella

The report can be read as a study of Poland's peripheral role in global 
military capitalism, where security is not guaranteed but conditioned by 
obedience. According to the cited media, this topic is particularly 
sensitive: the sale of TNT is supposed to be the "price" for maintaining 
the American security umbrella, the illusory nature of which has been 
clearly exposed by Donald Trump's administration. The irony is that the 
American arms industry is dependent on Polish production, not the other 
way around.

The effects of this asymmetry were already visible in 2023. The 
offensive on Gaza coincided with Ukraine's artillery collapse. The 
firepower ratio at that time was approximately 1:5 in Russia's favor, 
Avdiivka and Marinka were wiped out, and any chance of a 
counteroffensive was dashed. Despite this, some of the 155mm shells 
loaded with Polish TNT from October 2023 onward officially intended for 
the defense of Ukraine were diverted to Israel and used as a tool for 
the forced displacement of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

This is an example of political calculations calculated on the basis of 
real human lives in various parts of the world implemented not in the 
abstract, but through very specific production decisions, contracts, 
shipments, and resource allocation. It is at this level production 
decisions and material flows that this system becomes vulnerable to 
disruption.

Complicity and Co-Responsibility

Poland appears to have no control over how and against whom the weapons 
produced with our participation are used or rather, it does not want to. 
The purpose of the Polish TNT is an open secret, underlying the Polish 
government's political denial of genocide. Meanwhile, international law 
imposes an obligation on states to prevent the crime of genocide. The 
Arms Trade Treaty requires the blocking of arms transfers including 
components and materials if there is a risk of their use for this purpose.

The widespread knowledge of Israel's use of Mk.84 bombs makes the 
delivery of these weapons not a neutral trade but a political decision 
contrary to the foundations of the post-war legal order. The Joe Biden 
administration's brief suspension of the delivery of 1,800 bombs during 
the Rafah offensive reversed a few months later by the Donald Trump 
administration showed that even Washington was aware of the scale of 
this risk, but interests prevailed over the appearance of humanitarianism.

Poland's complicity is part of an offensive led by powerful actors 
Israel, the United States, and Russia against the system of 
international law. Institutions meant to uphold these norms - such as 
the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, 
and UN commissions of inquiry - are being neutralized or openly 
attacked. In their place, Trump's "Peace Council" has emerged, trading 
access to the negotiating table and tempting them with a share of the 
profits from the international occupation of Gaza. This does not absolve 
minor actors like Poland of responsibility; on the contrary, it 
demonstrates how much the global system of violence relies on their 
tacit cooperation.

Social Embargo on Palestine

Since October 2023, we have witnessed genocide broadcast live on social 
media. The scale of the crime is well documented, and declared 
opposition to Israel's actions - including in Poland - is widespread. 
Despite this, knowledge and outrage have not translated into real policy 
change by states supporting the Israeli war machine. The deluge of 
images of atrocities does not mobilize effective opposition - it 
paralyzes it. The problem isn't a lack of information or "insufficient 
awareness," but rather a structural powerlessness in the face of a 
system resistant to moral appeals, resolutions, and rulings from 
international institutions. Human rights discourse has once again proven 
effective in describing and analyzing violence, but ineffective in 
stopping it. The failure of institutions, as is often the case, shifts 
responsibility to grassroots movements.

The report, "The Missing Ingredient: Polish TNT," stems from the premise 
that war cannot be waged without logistics. Transport, ports, 
warehouses, and factories are the backbone of military violence, but 
also its bottlenecks. For years, the report's authors have linked 
investigations into the arms industry with the practices of the People's 
Embargo for Palestine campaign. Their actions condemn the complicity of 
countries such as the US, Canada, Turkey, and European states, and are 
actually disrupting war logistics: from port workers refusing to unload 
weapons, through the withdrawal of logistics companies, to the closure 
of ports to military shipments, resulting in weeks-long delivery delays.
The social embargo is not a moral imperative here, but a practice of 
real pressure. Movements such as Workers for a Free Palestine and Labor 
for an Arms Embargo employ long-term organizing in their daily practice: 
building union coalitions and international coordination of activities - 
not only among dockworkers and transport workers, but also among 
cultural and educational workers. This is the starting point for a 
strategy based on proven know-how, not symbolic, one-time gestures.

Realizing how deeply and tangibly our hands are drenched in the blood of 
Palestinians can initially lead to a sense of hopelessness. It can also 
become a moment of breaking away from the role of passive observer from 
a peripheral state - because the belief that "it's not up to us" has 
always been a convenient lie. You can read the People's Embargo For 
Palestine coalition reports here: 
https://www.embargoforpalestine.com/reports

Those interested in the coalition's activities are encouraged to contact 
us: embargo_teraz@proton.me

and follow us: instagram.com/embargo_teraz

A-TAK No. 20

https://federacja-anarchistyczna.pl/2026/04/27/polski-trotyl-zabija-palestynczykow-o-raporcie-brakujacy-skladnik-polski-trotyl-i-spolecznym-embargo-dla-palestyny/
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