In May, the United States announced it would stop supplying Israel with 500-pound bombs. (pounds), and especially the 2,000-pound (nearly a ton) bombs on Israel, citing the deadly damage these devastating weapons do when used on densely populated areas in Gaza.Civilians have been killed in Gaza by these bombs and other methods used to attack densely populated areas.“, the American president declared on CNN. In July, Israel obtained the resumption of some deliveries, but the United States maintained its veto on these weapons: “I am not supplying the 2,000-pound bombs. They cannot be used in Gaza or any other populated area without causing great human tragedy and great damage.”Biden had explained again. A somewhat late statement, some commentators deplored, knowing that according to Reuters, the United States had supplied no less than 14,000 of these bombs to Israel since October 7, among the most devastating in the Israeli arsenal.
The halt in deliveries in the spring did not mean that Israel would stop using them. This was demonstrated by the deadly strike carried out with “2,000 pounds” in July on Al-Mawasi, the “humanitarian zone” overcrowded area that the Hebrew state has demarcated along the southern coast of Gaza. According to Tsahal, the strike targeted, and killed, Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, one of the most senior officials of the Islamist organization, wanted since the massacres of October 7, for which he is considered one of the main perpetrators.
Ditches almost 9 metres deep and 15 metres wide
On Tuesday, September 10, it was again in the misnamed “humanitarian zone” that at least four Israeli projectiles struck. The toll: at least 19 dead, more than twenty missing, and 60 injured according to the Ministry of Health of the enclave controlled by Hamas. The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the shooting and described “a precise strike, based on intelligence” which allegedly targeted three senior Hamas members. Analysis of the craters, ditches nearly 30 feet deep and 50 feet wide left in the middle of the refugee tents, and debris found on the site, according to various experts interviewed by the American press (CNN and the New York Times) indicate the use of 2,000-pound bombs, specifically MK-84s.
The 2,000-pound bombs, manufactured by the United States for seventy years, were at the heart of the air campaign launched by Israel after October 7, and particularly during the first weeks of the conflict, which were the deadliest for the Gazan population. According to a US military official quoted by the New York Times, 90% of the projectiles launched by Israel during the first two weeks of the war were 1,000 or 2,000 pound bombs.
Six weeks after the start of the conflict, the New York Times had counted at least 208 craters corresponding to these bombs in the south of Gaza, where the population was then ordered to flee. On November 6, CNN counted more than 500, mainly in the north of the enclave. Very conservative analyses, first because the New York Times had restricted its research to part of the enclave, and especially because these bombs do not systematically leave identifiable craters on satellite images (a process used by both editorial teams in their investigations). Thus, the number of 2,000-pound bombs used since the beginning of the conflict is undoubtedly in the thousands, even if it remains unknown. On October 12, after less than a week of conflict, Israel claimed to have dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza in one week, equivalent to 4,000 tons of explosives.
A caliber used to reach Hamas tunnels
If we put aside some 50 5,000-pound bombs that the Hebrew state bought from the United States in 2015, according to the New York Times, These 2,000-pound bombs are the largest projectiles in the Israeli arsenal. The IDF uses this caliber in particular to reach and destroy Hamas tunnels, scattered several meters underground in residential areas of Gaza.
On the surface, these MK-84s or BLU-119s (bunker busters of the same weight but different composition) flatten entire city blocks, causing considerable human damage. The UN establishes their lethality radius at 33.5 meters, indicating that they can cause injuries up to 350 meters, although these parameters vary depending on the environment and the mode of explosion (underground or above ground). As Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon official who was head of targeting of important targets during the 2003 Iraq War, explained to CheckNews in October 2024, “the use of such a powerful weapon has [également] to cause the earth to “liquefy” – as in an earthquake – and cause structural damage with the shock wave».
Many of the deadliest strikes of the conflict have been carried out using these bombs. The strike on the Jabalia camp on October 31 was carried out by at least one 2,000-pound bomb, possibly several. The latter, which leveled an entire city block in a densely populated neighborhood in one fell swoop, killed between 126 and 143 people, according to the NGO’s independent count. Airwarsincluding at least 69 children, and reportedly injured up to 28 people.
On February 12, during the night of bombings called «Superbowl massacre“, taken in Rafah as the Israeli army extracted two hostages from the southern Gaza city, an analysis of the craters by a specialist contacted by CheckNewssuggests, in at least two cases, the use of these bombs.
This use of such devastating projectiles in particularly densely populated urban areas is very far from European and American military criteria in this area, according to an expert familiar with these issues, interviewed by CheckNews in December. These criticisms, as well as the growing pressure of public opinion, have therefore forced the United States to suspend their deliveries. Without this, however, stopping their use by Israel.
Report on ‘Israel’s use of heavy bombs in Gaza’
While criticism has focused, for nearly a year of bombing, on these bombs, whose caliber is considered disproportionate in an urban environment, they do not alone explain the scale of the human toll and destruction in Gaza. The strike on the Rafah refugee camp on May 26, which left 45 dead and hundreds injured according to the Gaza Health Ministry (controlled by Hamas), and whose images of burning tents and a decapitated baby went around the world, was carried out using two GBU-39s. Bombs of a smaller caliber, each weighing 250 pounds (110 kilos), and containing 17 kilos of explosive. That is 25 times less than the MK-84s dropped on Al-Mawasi earlier this week.
In June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report on “Israel’s use of heavy bombs in Gaza”and the “serious concerns” that this raises under the laws of war. The report targets six deadly attacks carried out by the IDF, most of them without warning to civilian populations, between October and December 2023. Strikes involving the alleged use of GBU-31 (2,000 pounds), GBU-32 (1,000 pounds) and GBU-39 (250 pounds) bombs against apartment buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market. “Israel’s choice of methods and means to conduct hostilities in Gaza since October 7, including the massive use of explosive weapons with a wide impact radius in densely populated areas, have failed to effectively distinguish between civilians and combatants.”denounces the report. “The obligation to choose means and methods of warfare that avoid or at least minimize to the greatest extent possible harm to civilians appears to have been systematically violated in Israel’s bombing campaign.”declared the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
Since the beginning of the campaign on Gaza, Israel has always defended itself by claiming to respect international law and to take all possible precautions to limit the harm caused to civilians.
