Israel could have used smaller weapons against Hamas to avoid deaths in Gaza tent camp, experts say

But displaced civilians were scattered throughout the area and Israel had not ordered their evacuation. So even though the tents that burned were not inside the demarcated humanitarian zone, civilians believed they were safe.

Israel, which was attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023, did not say where the burned tents were in relation to the compound it bombed on Sunday, but released a satellite image showing there were shelters known civilians located approximately 180 meters (600 meters) away. feet) away.

He pointed out that although there were no tents “in the immediate vicinity,” due to “unforeseen circumstances, a fire tragically broke out, killing Gaza civilians nearby.”

Footage released by the Israeli military appeared to show people walking near the targeted buildings before the explosion. The images also appear to show tents nearby.

Israel did not identify the bombs it used, but Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, stressed that the country chose the smallest munition its planes could carry – with 17 kg (37 pounds) of explosive material each – and that an unintended effect A secondary explosion could be the cause of the fire.

Even the smallest aircraft-launched munition can prove too big near civilians because of the way it explodes and can send fragments far, defense experts said.

Images posted on social media from the tent camp Monday and verified by The Associated Press showed a CAGE code, a unique identifier assigned to U.S. government suppliers, on pieces of the exploded weapons.

Based on these images and satellite photos of the debris field, two defense experts said the bombs used were likely American-made 250-pound (113 kg) small-diameter GBU-39 bombs.

Although smaller than many other weapons supplied by the United States to Israel, these bombs can still cause significant damage. The entire 250-pound shell and its components are designed to spit fragments that can travel up to 600 meters (2,000 feet).

“They basically use two bombs whose fragments can travel 600 meters in a densely populated area. So it doesn't provide any insight into whether they're trying to limit casualties,” said Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician.

Ball said the serial number on the tail kit parts and shell debris shown in photographs identify the munitions as 250-pound GBU-39s.

It is unusual to describe a bomb by its explosive charge — in this case, 37 pounds — instead of its total weight, according to Ball and Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps reserve colonel and senior advisor to the Study Center strategic and international.

The debris field in Gaza indicates that the bombs could explode before impact, which would guarantee the death of their targets but also risk unintended deaths, Ball and Cancian said. The images showed a small hole where shrapnel had been found.

The GBU-39's fuse settings can be adjusted so that the bomb explodes on impact, which would create a crater on the site, or set for a delayed explosion if the objective is to cause it to penetrate deeper into a target first.

They can also be configured to explode in mid-air, just before impact, to ensure that multiple targets are hit. But that setting also maximizes area damage, which could account for a secondary explosion even if weapons or other flammable materials were some distance away, Ball said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters during a visit to Moldova on Wednesday that the United States was awaiting an investigation to show what weapons were used and how they were deployed.

While this confirms that Israel used a small-diameter weapon, “we also see that even limited, focused, targeted attacks – designed to combat terrorists who have killed innocent civilians and are plotting to kill more – even This type of operation can have terrible consequences. , horrible and unintended consequences,” Blinken said.

Defense experts said Israel had better options to turn to than the GBU-39 when civilians were nearby.

The Israelis have already deployed drones to deliver smaller, more precise weapons, Cancian said. These precision airstrikes used over the years have caused little damage beyond the immediate target.

Israel, for example, could have used a smaller antipersonnel weapon called a mini-Spike in this strike, which would not have created as large a debris zone if it targeted specific Hamas leaders, Cancian said.

The United States has refused a delivery of even larger 900 kg bombs from Israel, fearing they could be used in Israel's Rafah operation, where more than a million Palestinians gathered after 'Israel has bombed other parts of Gaza.

Today, the same number of people have fled Rafah and are scattered in makeshift tent camps and other areas.

Sunday's strike shows that even the small 250-pound bombs the United States continues to supply may be too big to use near areas densely populated with refugees, Cancian said.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that the United States was still trying to gather information from Israel about the deadly Rafah strike. He declined to discuss the specific munitions used by Israel, but said Israel's public comments on the munitions used “certainly indicate a desire to be more deliberate and more precise in their targeting.”