An explosive new investigation from the activist coalition No Harbour for Genocide, exclusively obtained by Middle East Eye, has uncovered a large-scale clandestine network run by two of Greece’s most powerful shipping dynasties that has been evading international sanctions and national embargoes to supply Israel with crude oil, thermal coal, and military hardware during its military campaign in Gaza.
The investigation, which draws on satellite imagery, maritime tracking data, and on-the-ground port monitoring, documents that between May 2024 — when Turkey implemented a full trade embargo on Israel over the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza — and December 2025, at least 57 covert shipments of crude oil, totaling approximately 47 million barrels, were delivered to Israeli ports via Turkish territory. The shipments were organized by vessels managed by Kyklades Maritime Corporation, controlled by the Alafouzos shipping dynasty, and Thenamaris Ships Management, owned by the equally influential Martinos family. Greek government and shipping regulatory bodies have not yet issued a public response to the findings.
To avoid detection, the coalition’s researchers found that the ships departed Turkey’s Mediterranean Ceyhan port with falsified destination documents, most commonly listing Egypt’s Port Said as their end point. Once they entered international waters toward Israel, crews disabled their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) — the mandatory tracking transponders required for all large commercial vessels under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. Going “dark” this way allowed the ships to reach Israeli ports, primarily Ashkelon, offload their cargo, and only reactivate their transponders once they departed, leaving no official trace of their stop. Satellite imagery reviewed by MEE confirms the vessels were docked in Israeli ports while their tracking systems were off.
The bulk of this crude oil is sourced from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a 1,768-kilometer energy corridor that carries Caspian Sea crude from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean, co-operated by British energy giant BP and Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil firm SOCAR. Investigators confirmed the oil was later refined into jet fuel for the Israeli Air Force and fuel for ground military vehicles and tanks. Israel relies on the BTC pipeline for roughly 30 percent of its total national oil supply, making this covert shipping network critical to sustaining its military operations.
Before Turkey’s embargo took effect in May 2024, the two Greek firms accounted for just 21.82 percent of all oil shipments traveling from Turkey to Israel. After the embargo was implemented, that share skyrocketed to 91.23 percent, effectively turning the companies into the primary lifeline for oil moving between Turkey and Israel in open violation of Turkish trade law.
Beyond crude oil, the investigation also documents eight covert shipments of thermal coal, totaling 751,000 tonnes, transported from South Africa to Israel between October 2023 and February 2026. These vessels used identical shadow tactics: falsifying destinations to Egypt’s Damietta port, disabling AIS transponders mid-voyage, and only reactivating them after offloading in Israel. Israel uses the coal to fuel its two operational coal-fired power plants, making the covert supply critical to maintaining domestic energy infrastructure during the conflict.
The investigation also exposes the role of Greek-managed vessels in military supply chains for Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems. In 2025 alone, at least 13 separate shipments carried by four Greek-managed vessels delivered ammunition, machine gun components, and other military hardware to the company. Most of these shipments were operated by ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, Israel’s largest maritime shipping firm.
Several of these military shipments have already been intercepted by activist and worker actions: In October 2024, Greek dockworkers and community activists blocked the Marla Bull, a Greek-owned vessel carrying 21 tonnes of ammunition, from departing the port of Piraeus. Union leader Markos Bekris, who led the action, subsequently faced criminal prosecution for the solidarity protest. Most recently, in December 2025, French dockworkers blocked the Zim America — managed by Greek shipping firm Costamare Shipping, owned by the prominent Konstantakopoulos dynasty — from loading 18 tonnes of cannon barrels bound for Elbit Systems.
Both the Alafouzos and Martinos families wield enormous influence in Greek and global business. Giannis Alafouzos, head of the Alafouzos dynasty and owner of Greece’s Panathinaikos football club, recently met with U.S. officials to discuss “collaboration amid global energy security and supply chain pressure.” The Martinos family controls the largest private shipping fleet in Greece. Prior investigations have also linked both firms to shadow fleet operations transporting oil to Russia in violation of international sanctions imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. MEE reached out to both Kyklades Maritime and Thenamaris Ships Management for comment ahead of publication, and neither responded.
The ties between Greece and Israel run deep, with extensive economic and military cooperation between the two states. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis recently described Greece as a “satellite” and “handmaiden” of Israel in the context of the Gaza conflict. Since the outbreak of hostilities in October 2023, global labor unions and activist groups have ramped up pressure on governments and private companies to cut all commercial and military ties with Israel to protest the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which the report describes as genocide. In February 2026 alone, dockworkers at more than 20 Mediterranean ports launched a coordinated strike to demand an end to all military cargo shipments to Israel.
“This report shows that Israel’s war is not sustained in isolation, but through an international network of companies, ports, and governments that keep fuel and weapons moving even as the atrocities are broadcast to the world,” said Layla Hazaineh of Progressive International, one of the coalition members behind the investigation.
Ana Sanchez, spokesperson for No Harbour for Genocide, emphasized that the shadow fleet tactics put seafarers at risk purely for corporate profit. “Dockworkers and communities put their bodies and their jobs on the line to stop a genocide. Shipowners turn off their tracking systems, falsify destinations, and endanger seafarers, all to profit from it. We know who they are, we know what they’re doing, and now so does everyone else. It’s time they are held accountable.”
Maren Mantovani, a member of the international secretariat of the BDS movement, called on Greek civil society to pressure their government to implement full trade, energy, and military embargoes against Israel. “Greek shipping dynasties like the Alafouzos and Martinos families profit from Israel’s genocide against Palestinians through shady tactics, jeopardising worker lives and safety in the process,” Mantovani said. “We call on the Greek people to take action to pressure their government to impose comprehensive trade, energy, and military embargoes against Israel that would block all supply routes implicated in Israel’s genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation.”