Sharon Zhang
Truthout / July 16, 2024
At least one of the eight 2,000-pound bombs used in the massacre was made in the US.
Israeli forces dropped eight tons of bombs on an area Israel labeled as a “humanitarian safe zone” in Gaza on Saturday, wielding explosives built to maximize destruction on an area sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been forced to flee Israel’s genocidal campaign again and again.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Israeli military dropped eight 2,000-pound bombs during its attack on Al-Mawasi on Saturday, striking civilian areas including a market, a soup kitchen and a water source. These bombs have the power to level entire neighborhoods or strike deeply into concrete bunkers, and humanitarian groups have said that using even one of these 2,000-pound (or smaller) bombs in civilian areas is a war crime.
The Israeli military killed 90 people and injured at least 300 others in the attack, according to Palestinian health officials. This is the deadliest of several attacks in recent days as Israel has escalated its bombings in central and southern Gaza — despite dubious reports by Israeli officials that they are supposedly entering a less deadly phase of their genocide.
In fact, the U.S. has provided Israel with thousands of JDAMs and 2,000-pound bombs since October, and has sent tens of thousands of these weapons to Israel over decades of Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. It’s recently been reported that the U.S. is releasing a shipment of 1,700 500-pound bombs that were held up along with the 2,000-pound bomb shipment — bombs with just as much destructive power, but in a slightly smaller radius.
The U.S. has rushed so quickly to send Israel bombs that the Pentagon ran out of planes to carry the bombs over at one point.
Israel’s extensive use of 2,000-pound bombs on Al-Mawasi on Saturday, which came more than two months since the last shipment of such bombs was paused, is a show that Israeli forces have no shortage of 2,000-pound bombs. Israeli officials have said that they have enough weapons to finish their objectives in Gaza, regardless of the U.S.’s singular pause.
Palestinians who survived the massacre described it as horrifying, saying they witnessed dismembered limbs strewn around and children’s bodies ripped apart as a result of the bombing.
Israeli officials had ordered over a million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah to evacuate to the desert area of Al-Mawasi and Khan Yunis, which Israeli forces have largely destroyed, as they began their invasion of Rafah in May. Since then, Israel has attacked the “safe zones” multiple times. In essence, Israel has deliberately trapped the majority of Gaza’s population into a small area and is now using its most destructive bombs there.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military once again bombed Al-Mawasi, killing at least 17 Palestinians, officials have reported.
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor
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War on Gaza: Israeli strike on Nuseirat school kills 23 Palestinians
Mohammed al-Hajjar & Heba Nasser
Middle East Eye / July 16, 2024
United Nations-run facility the latest school sheltering displaced families to be targeted by Israel.
An Israeli strike on a UN-run school housing displaced families in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday killed 23 people and wounded 73 others.
The strike left the school partially destroyed, with debris covering the yard and classrooms used as shelters by displaced Palestinians.
“These were civilians who were killed. These were children who were torn up in the strike, there’s nothing left of them,” one man yelled as he showed Middle East Eye a white tarp on which body parts were being collected.
Among those killed was local journalist Mohammad Meshmesh, taking the number of journalists killed in the conflict to 160, the government media office in Gaza said.
The strike on the school left people in a state of shock, as they watched rescue workers removing bodies from under the rubble, Nuseirat resident Riyad Abu Shanab told MEE.
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“Look around you. You can see body parts strewn around,” Abu Shanab said.
“I could have been one of the victims. I had just gone to the toilet to wash my hands when the strike hit, engulfing the area with fire. It was only a moment that separated me from death,” he added.
“This is an Unrwa school sheltering displaced people. They hit a school yesterday too. People are getting killed in front of us and we have nowhere to go.”
Um Alaa Abu Daher was sitting with her daughter and niece in a classroom on the ground floor when the missile hit nearby.
“Suddenly there was nothing but fire and smoke outside. But this is not the first time we find ourselves in this situation,” Abu Daher said.
Her niece Maysara said the school that the family had previously been sheltering in was also hit, wounding several of her relatives.
“Before this strike hit, I could hear the sound of children outside. After the strike, the sound of children disappeared,” Maysara said.
The Israeli military said “terrorists” were active in the area and that it was investigating reports of casualties.
Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed at least 57 Palestinians, including 17 people who were killed in a strike near a tented area housing displaced people in the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
The attack on Al-Mawasi comes after air strikes killed at least 88 people and wounded 289 others on Saturday in a displaced people’s camp in the same district.
More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s war on Gaza since October, according to local officials. The majority of the dead are women and children.
Israel on Tuesday said it had killed or wounded 14,000 Hamas members and eliminated half of the organization’s leadership.
Israel claimed Al-Mawasi strike on Saturday was targeting Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, though the Palestinian group denied he was affected.
Mohammed al-Hajjar – Middle East Eye Gaza correspondent
Heba Nasser is a news editor at Middle East Eye
