Israel used 2,000-pound bombs in attack on Jabaliya, analysis shows

Israel used at least two 2,000-pound bombs on Tuesday in an airstrike on Jabaliya, a densely populated area just north of Gaza City, according to experts and an analysis by The New York Times of satellite images, photos and videos.

Hospital officials said dozens of civilians were killed and hundreds injured in the attack. Israel said it targeted a Hamas commander and fighters, as well as Hamas’s network underground tunnels used by Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, to hide weapons and fighters.

Israel’s use of such bombs, the second largest type in its arsenal, is not uncommon, and the size is generally the largest that most militaries regularly use. They can be used to attack underground infrastructure, but their deployment in a dense and densely populated area like Jabaliya has raised questions about proportionality – whether Israel’s intended objectives justify the civilian casualties and destruction caused by the attacks.

The evidence and analysis show that the Israeli military dropped at least two 2,000-pound bombs on the site. Two impact craters are about 40 feet wide – dimensions consistent with underground explosions this type of weapon would cause in light sandy soil, according to a technical study from 2016 by Armament Research Services, an ammunition research consultancy.

Marc Garlascoone of the study’s authors, said the bombs may have had “a delay fuse,” which delays the detonation for milliseconds after penetrating the surface or a building so that the blast’s destructive power reaches deeper.

The bombs are normally equipped with so-called guidance kits Joint direct attack munitionsturning them from so-called dumb bombs to precision, GPS-guided weapons.

Mr. Garlasco, who works as a military advisor for the Dutch organization PAX, said it was unclear from the images alone whether the bombs were equipped with bunker-busting warheads, which are designed to penetrate fortified military structures. But Israel’s publicly stated goal was to attack a Hamas leader in an underground bunker.

Without access to the strike site, The New York Times could not determine whether there were tunnels below.

The only larger bomb in Israel’s arsenal weighs 4,500 to 5,000 pounds, according to Jeremy Binnie, Middle East and Africa editor for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Jansen.

Eighty-three countries, including the United States but not Israel, have done so signed a commitment to refrain “where appropriate, from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas” due to their likelihood of harming civilians.

“Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza, including this Jabaliya attack, magnifies these concerns many times over,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.

The Israeli military has declined to comment on the number and specific type of weapons it used in Jabaliya. However, public reports of the repeated attacks on Jabaliya this week have caused some confusion.

In posts on social media the Israeli army claimed there was a strike video the assassination of the head of Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit on Wednesday, November 1. But The Times determined that the footage did in fact record Israel’s attack on Jabaliya on Tuesday, October 31 claimed killed another commander. The military declined to comment on the reason for the discrepancy.