Caught by aljazeera.com
According to a US official, the US has decided to start supplying Israel with 500-pound bombs again, but it is still withholding deliveries of more potent 2,000-pound bombs due to worries that Israeli forces may deploy them on heavily populated parts of Gaza.
Concerned about the potential effects of the weapons if employed by Israel during its ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinian civilians had sought shelter, the US in May put a halt to one shipment of 2,000-pound (900kg) and 500-pound (230kg) bombs.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official stated, “We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs, particularly for Israel’s Rafah campaign which they have announced they are concluding.” Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official stated on Wednesday.
A 500-pound bomb has a blast radius of 20 meters (65 feet), and it can kill or seriously injure everything or everybody inside of it when it explodes.
According to research and analysis on defense strategy done by the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), a 2,000-pound bomb has a devastation radius of 35 meters (115 feet).
The transfer of the smaller bombs to Israel has halted, according to the US official, because the 500-pound bombs were shipped with the 2,000-pound bombs.
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The official stated, “Our primary concern has been and continues to be the possible use of 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah and other areas of Gaza.”
Israel has received notification from the US that the 500-pound bombs will be released, but
The US has notified Israel that it is releasing the 500-pound bombs but maintaining a hold on the larger ones, a person familiar with the matter said.“likely ramp up criticism of the Biden administration for its ongoing support for Israel in its war on Gaza”.
Israel’s steady flow of US weaponry
In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Washington of withholding weapons and called on US officials to remedy the situation.
The Biden administration denied Netanyahu’s claim and expressed disappointment over his remarks. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed during a recent trip to Washington that “obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed” about the subject of US munitions shipments to Israel, which has made substantial progress.
The one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs was halted, but the US has not stopped supplying Israel with weapons.
According to the Reuters news agency, the US had transferred at least 14,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October until the end of June.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has come under increased international scrutiny as the Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that more than 38,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict, leaving the coastal enclave in ruins and its people facing starvation due to a disease outbreak.
