JERUSALEM: Israel’s deadly strike on Al-Mawasi, one of the bloodiest attacks in more than nine months of war in Gaza, used massive payload bombs provided by the United States, according to weapons experts.
The bombing of the Israeli-declared “safe zone” transformed the tent city on the Mediterranean coast into a charred wasteland, with nearby hospitals overrun with casualties.
According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, the barrage killed at least 92 people and wounded more than 300.
The Israeli military said it targeted two “masterminds” of the October 7 attacks by Hamas that triggered the war. It said a top commander, Rafa Salama, was killed in the strike, but uncertainty remains over Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
AFP videos of the attack showed a white mushroom cloud billowing over a busy street, leaving behind a huge crater strewn with the wreckage of tents and a building blown to bits.
Here is what we know about the weaponry used in the attack:
Two weapons experts said that a sliver of munition seen in a video of the blast site circulating online was a tail fin from a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). AFP could not independently verify the video.
The GPS-aided kit converts unguided free-fall bombs — so-called “dumb bombs” — into precision-guided “smart” munitions that can be directed toward single or multiple targets.
The United States developed the kit to improve accuracy in adverse weather after Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
The first JDAMs were delivered in 1997 and, according to the US Air Force, have a 95 percent system reliability.
Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician, concluded from images of the Al-Mawasi strike “it’s 100 percent a JDAM kit” made in the United States.
He said that given the types of bombs compatible with the guidance system and the size of the fin fragment, the JDAM was most likely used with either a 1,000 or 2,000 pound (450 or 900 kilogram) payload.
He said the fragment could also be compatible with the BLU-109 “bunker buster” warhead, which is designed to penetrate concrete.
Ball said it was not possible to definitively determine where the payload itself was made without “very specific fragments of the bomb body.”
Repeated use of such large bombs in the densely populated Gaza Strip has sparked humanitarian outcry and heaped pressure on US President Joe Biden to reconsider the munitions supplied to Israel.
On July 12, Israel’s main military backer announced it was ending a pause on supplying 500-pound bombs, though Biden said the 2,000-pound type would be withheld.
The White House has repeatedly voiced frustration over the civilian death toll in Gaza as Israel attempts to eradicate Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials on Monday that the civilian toll was “unacceptably high,” his spokesman said.
Israeli officials said their “precise strike” in Al-Mawasi hit an open area that housed a Hamas compound and not a civilian camp.
When contacted by AFP regarding the weapons used, the Israeli military declined to comment.
Based on Israel’s stated target, Wes Bryant, a retired US Air Force master sergeant and strike and joint targeting expert, said it would have been feasible to avoid collateral damage in the surrounding area.
“My assessment is that any civilians killed in this strike were in the compound — not in the surrounding vicinity. So the IDF either failed to assess presence of civilians, or... deemed the risk to civilians proportional to the military advantage of taking out the Hamas leaders.”
The strike left Al-Mawasi a scene of “absolute destruction” with no water, electricity or sewage treatment, the Islamic Relief charity said.
It condemned Israel for its willingness “to kill innocent men, women and children in pursuit of its end goals.”
Hamas said that by arming Israel, the Biden administration is “legally and morally responsible” for spawning a “major humanitarian catastrophe.”
It said US-supplied weapons used by Israel included GPS-guided bombs, dumb bombs, bunker busters and JDAMs.
After repeated high-casualty strikes in recent days, a Hamas official said the group was withdrawing from indirect talks for a truce and hostage release deal with Israel.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,664 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
Weapons experts: US-supplied bombs used in Israeli strike of Gaza ‘safe zone’
https://arab.news/9bq8a
Weapons experts: US-supplied bombs used in Israeli strike of Gaza ‘safe zone’
- A sliver of munition seen in a video of the blast site circulating online was a tail fin from a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition
- Former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician: ‘it’s 100 percent a JDAM kit’ made in the United States
Lebanese PM urges swift approval of law aimed at paying back depositors
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam urged the Cabinet to swiftly approve a draft law allowing depositors to gradually recover funds frozen in the banking system since a financial collapse in 2019, a move critical to reviving the economy.
The collapse — the result of decades of unsustainable financial policies, waste and corruption — led the state to default on its sovereign debt and sank the Lebanese pound.
The draft law marks the first time Beirut has put forward legislation aimed at addressing a vast funding shortfall — estimated at $70 billion in 2022 but now believed to be higher.
BACKGROUND
The draft law marks the first time Beirut has put forward legislation aimed at addressing a vast funding shortfall — estimated at $70 billion in 2022 but now believed to be higher.
The Cabinet approved several articles on Monday. Discussions would continue on Tuesday, Information Minister Paul Morcos said. Lebanon’s divided parliament must pass the law after cabinet approval.
Salam said the law is realistic and its goal is to do “justice to depositors,” also spurring recovery in the banking sector.
Finance Minister Yassine Jaber said implementation of the law would boost the economy, pumping deposits of $3-$4 billion annually into the system.
The draft, published on Friday, foresees repayments to small depositors – those with deposits valued at less than $100,000 – in monthly or quarterly instalments over four years.
Deposits larger than $100,000 will be repaid via tradable, asset-backed securities to be issued by the central bank or Banque du Liban, with no less than 2 percent of the value paid annually.
The maturity period will be set at 10 years for deposits valued at up to $1 million, at 15 years for deposits valued from $1 million to $5 million, and at 20 years for deposits valued at more than $5 million.
The securities will be backed by the income, revenues and returns of BdL-owned assets and any proceeds from the sale of assets, if any occur. The draft mentions precious metals, which have soared in value this year, as one possible source of income.
It says commercial banks will bear 20 percent of the responsibility for payments for the asset-backed securities. It says BdL and commercial banks will jointly finance the payments of the small deposits, with BdL’s share not exceeding 60 percent.
Debt owed by the state to BdL will be converted into a bond whose maturity and interest rate would be agreed between the Finance Ministry and BdL.
The Association of Banks in Lebanon has objected to the draft, saying on Sunday that the proposals do not reflect banks’ ability to meet “their obligations towards depositors” and that the state was not “fulfilling its outstanding debts to BdL.”
Mike Azar, an expert on the financial system, said the law appeared to be intentionally vague on politically sensitive but critical questions.
“For example, what happens if the BdL or the banks can’t pay what they owe to depositors?” he said.
Swapping deposits for asset-backed securities issued by BdL could imply a big “contingent state debt,” he said. The government has yet to provide quantitative analysis underpinning the plan, including deposit repayment amounts, sources of funding, and bank recapitalization needs, he added.
Jaber noted that the value of BdL’s gold assets had risen with the price of gold since 2020, which would help provide confidence in the asset-backed securities.
The law requires an international auditing firm to evaluate BdL’s assets within one month to determine the size of the funding shortfall. Banks must also conduct an asset quality review and recapitalize.
The law would write off some dollar deposits.
These would include deposits that resulted from funds being converted into dollars from pounds at the official exchange rate long after it had collapsed as well as deposits containing illicit funds, in accordance with a law to counter money-laundering and financing for terrorism.
