Record of Devastation Wrought by 2,000-pound Bombs Sent by Trump to Israel
11:56 GMT 27.01.2025 (Updated: 14:13 GMT 27.01.2025)
© Photo : Israeli Army via APIn this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024.
© Photo : Israeli Army via AP
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US President Donald Trump confirmed Saturday that his administration had lifted restrictions on the delivery of 2,000-pound aerial bombs to Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu has formally thanked Trump for lifting restrictions on the export of some 1,800 MK 84 bombs to Israel.
Earlier, Joe Biden imposed a symbolic ban on MK 84 deliveries to Israel last May amid the IAF’s heavy use of the munitions to flatten Gaza.
Researchers from Harvard’s FXB Center for Health found last fall that between October 7 and November 17, 2023, Israel dropped 592 MK 84s within range of critical hospital infrastructure.
© Photo : Harvard University FXB Center for Health & Human RightsProximity of bomb craters to hospitals and within the Israeli military designated evacuation zone in the Gaza Strip. Map from the October 2024 Harvard study "Are hospitals collateral damage?"
Proximity of bomb craters to hospitals and within the Israeli military designated evacuation zone in the Gaza Strip. Map from the October 2024 Harvard study "Are hospitals collateral damage?"
© Photo : Harvard University FXB Center for Health & Human Rights
The study determined the bombs could kill people 360 m from the point of detonation, and cause injury at ranges up to 800 m away. Of 36 of Gaza’s hospitals, nine had at least one MK 84 crater in lethal range, two with 21-23 craters. 38 bombs were dropped within an 800 m radius identified by Israel as an ‘evacuation zone’.
© Photo : Harvard University FXB Center for Health & Human RightsDistances between hospitals and most proximal bomb crater for all hospitals in the Gaza Strip. Calculations from October 2024 Harvard Study "Are hospitals collateral damage?"
Distances between hospitals and most proximal bomb crater for all hospitals in the Gaza Strip. Calculations from October 2024 Harvard Study "Are hospitals collateral damage?"
© Photo : Harvard University FXB Center for Health & Human Rights
Between late 2023 and mid-2024, the IAF dropped more MK 84s and other munitions on the 365 km2 strip than the combined tonnage dropped on London, Hamburg and Dresden in WWII, hitting an array of civilian targets including hospitals, mosques and Gaza’s three churches.
Israel's intense bombing of Gaza is thought to have killed some 33,000 Palestinians in the first 100 days of the war, more people per capita than any conflict since the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
The MK 84 has been around since the 1960s, and was used by the US and its allies in Vietnam (1965 on), Iraq (1981, 1991, 2003), Lebanon (1982, 2024), Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (2001 on), Yemen (2015 on).
MK 84s can be converted into guided munitions using the JDAM kit, which ups its range and accuracy. This variant was deployed by the US and its allies in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine, where it ran into effective Russian electronic warfare jamming.