US Pauses Bomb Shipment for Israel Amid Concerns Over Rafah Ground Op

“We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000lb bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza. We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment.”

The official also said that “for certain other cases at the State Department, including JDAM [Joint Direct Attack Munition] kits, we are continuing the review. None of these cases involve imminent transfers – they are about future transfers”.

The official stressed that the shipments were unrelated to last month’s landmark $17bn military aid package, but had been drawn from “previously appropriated funds”.

The larger 2,000lb bombs are most likely to be Mk-84s or possibly BLU-109s – or both.

The former is a cheap, general purpose munition and the latter a penetration bomb designed for use against hardened or underground targets. Both can be fitted with JDAM kits that deliver precision capability using satellite navigation. Laser guidance kits can also be fitted.

These bombs can be made to be very accurate, down to just a few metres. But in a dense, urban environment like Gaza the risk of so-called “collateral damage” is high. And that is where the concern lies. The smaller 500lb bombs can also be fitted with guidance units dropped from jets.

We do not know exactly how Israel uses these weapons, but media posts from the Israeli Air Force frequently show F-16 and F-15 jets loaded with JDAMs for strikes.

It is worth remembering that such weapons would not just be used in Gaza but also targets in southern Lebanon belonging to the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which has been involved in almost daily cross-border exchanges of fire with Israeli forces since the start of the Gaza war.

The weapons being held back by the US are related to a future delivery, so it is unlikely to have any immediate impact. But given the rate at which Israel is bombing it will likely affect future strikes fairly soon.

It is a clear message from a Washington growing increasingly concerned about Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

Israel launched the campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 others were taken hostage.

More than 34,780 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel says 128 hostages are unaccounted for, 36 of whom are presumed dead.

(BBC)