JERUSALEM: Israel’s deadly strike on Al-Mawasi, one of the bloodiest attacks in more than nine months of war in Gaza, used massive payload bombs provided by the United States, according to weapons experts.
The bombing of the Israeli-declared “safe zone” transformed the tent city on the Mediterranean coast into a charred wasteland, with nearby hospitals overrun with casualties.
According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, the barrage killed at least 92 people and wounded more than 300.
The Israeli military said it targeted two “masterminds” of the October 7 attacks by Hamas that triggered the war. It said a top commander, Rafa Salama, was killed in the strike, but uncertainty remains over Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
AFP videos of the attack showed a white mushroom cloud billowing over a busy street, leaving behind a huge crater strewn with the wreckage of tents and a building blown to bits.
Here is what we know about the weaponry used in the attack:
Two weapons experts said that a sliver of munition seen in a video of the blast site circulating online was a tail fin from a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). AFP could not independently verify the video.
The GPS-aided kit converts unguided free-fall bombs — so-called “dumb bombs” — into precision-guided “smart” munitions that can be directed toward single or multiple targets.
The United States developed the kit to improve accuracy in adverse weather after Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
The first JDAMs were delivered in 1997 and, according to the US Air Force, have a 95 percent system reliability.
Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician, concluded from images of the Al-Mawasi strike “it’s 100 percent a JDAM kit” made in the United States.
He said that given the types of bombs compatible with the guidance system and the size of the fin fragment, the JDAM was most likely used with either a 1,000 or 2,000 pound (450 or 900 kilogram) payload.
He said the fragment could also be compatible with the BLU-109 “bunker buster” warhead, which is designed to penetrate concrete.
Ball said it was not possible to definitively determine where the payload itself was made without “very specific fragments of the bomb body.”
Repeated use of such large bombs in the densely populated Gaza Strip has sparked humanitarian outcry and heaped pressure on US President Joe Biden to reconsider the munitions supplied to Israel.
On July 12, Israel’s main military backer announced it was ending a pause on supplying 500-pound bombs, though Biden said the 2,000-pound type would be withheld.
The White House has repeatedly voiced frustration over the civilian death toll in Gaza as Israel attempts to eradicate Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials on Monday that the civilian toll was “unacceptably high,” his spokesman said.
Israeli officials said their “precise strike” in Al-Mawasi hit an open area that housed a Hamas compound and not a civilian camp.
When contacted by AFP regarding the weapons used, the Israeli military declined to comment.
Based on Israel’s stated target, Wes Bryant, a retired US Air Force master sergeant and strike and joint targeting expert, said it would have been feasible to avoid collateral damage in the surrounding area.
“My assessment is that any civilians killed in this strike were in the compound — not in the surrounding vicinity. So the IDF either failed to assess presence of civilians, or... deemed the risk to civilians proportional to the military advantage of taking out the Hamas leaders.”
The strike left Al-Mawasi a scene of “absolute destruction” with no water, electricity or sewage treatment, the Islamic Relief charity said.
It condemned Israel for its willingness “to kill innocent men, women and children in pursuit of its end goals.”
Hamas said that by arming Israel, the Biden administration is “legally and morally responsible” for spawning a “major humanitarian catastrophe.”
It said US-supplied weapons used by Israel included GPS-guided bombs, dumb bombs, bunker busters and JDAMs.
After repeated high-casualty strikes in recent days, a Hamas official said the group was withdrawing from indirect talks for a truce and hostage release deal with Israel.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,664 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
US-supplied bombs used in Israeli strike of Gaza ‘safe zone’ — weapons experts
https://arab.news/2g4ct
US-supplied bombs used in Israeli strike of Gaza ‘safe zone’ — weapons experts
- A sliver of munition seen in a video of the blast site circulating online was a tail fin from a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition
- Former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician: ‘it’s 100 percent a JDAM kit’ made in the United States
Gaza talks resume in Cairo as UN warns of worsening humanitarian conditions
- Months of on-off talks so far failed to produce breakthrough to end Israel’s devastating military campaign
- Hamas official said delegates going to Cairo but won’t attend talks
CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiators discussed new compromise proposals in Cairo on Saturday, seeking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas as the UN reported worsening humanitarian conditions, with malnutrition soaring and polio discovered.
Israeli military strikes in Gaza killed 50 people on Saturday, Palestinian health authorities said. Victims of hostilities over the past 48 hours remain lying on roads where fighting continues or trapped under rubble, the authorities said.
A Hamas delegation arrived on Saturday to be nearer at hand to review any proposals that emerge in the main talks between Israel and the mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and the United States, two Egyptian security sources said.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was expected to attend.
Months of on-off talks have so far failed to produce a breakthrough to end Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza or free the remaining hostages seized by Hamas in the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.
The Egyptian sources said the new proposals include compromises on outstanding points such as how to secure key areas and the return of people to north Gaza.
However there was no sign of any breakthrough on key sticking points, including Israel’s insistence that it must retain control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, on the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Hamas has accused Israel of going back on things it had previously agreed to in the talks, which Israel denies. The group says the United States is not mediating in good faith.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has locked horns with Israeli ceasefire negotiators over whether Israeli troops must remain all along the border between Gaza and Egypt, a person with knowledge of the talks said.
A Palestinian official familiar with mediation efforts said it was too soon to predict the outcome of talks. “Hamas is there to discuss the outcome of the mediators’ talks with the Israeli officials and whether there is enough to suggest a change in the Netanyahu stance about reaching a deal,” the official said.
DISEASE SPREADING
Continuing the war will worsen the plight of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, nearly all of them homeless in tents or shelters among the ruins, with malnutrition rampant and disease spreading, and risk the lives of remaining Israeli hostages.
The Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s Gaza campaign has killed more than 40,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.
UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a Friday update that the amount of food aid entering Gaza in July was one of the lowest since October, when Israeli imposed a full siege.
OCHA said that in July the number of children with acute malnutrition in northern Gaza was four times higher than in May, while in the more accessible south, where fighting is less severe, the number more than doubled.
The World Health Organization said on Friday a 10-month-old baby had been paralyzed with polio, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, raising fears of a wider outbreak given the lack of proper sanitation for people living in ruins.
More warfare also risks major new escalations, with Iran still weighing retaliation for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its territory last month.
Meanwhile, US Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began an
unannounced visit
to the Middle East on Saturday to discuss ways to avoid any new escalation in tensions that could spiral into a broader conflict, as the region braces for a threatened Iranian attack against Israel.
Fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah since Oct. 7 has ramped up recently, including with Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon and into the Bekaa, and with more Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel.
Former Jordanian PM urges educational institutions to prepare youth for digital economy
- Adnan Badran was speaking at the Economic Conference on Digital Economy and Technology,
LONDON: The former prime minister of Jordan has urged the country’s higher education and scientific institutions to better prepare young Jordanians for a digital and artificial intelligence-driven economy.
Adnan Badran was speaking at the Economic Conference on Digital Economy and Technology, which opened in Amman on Saturday.
He told the opening session of the conference that universities and other scientific organizations had to build programs to “match the digital transformation happening in Jordan so that younger generations of Jordanians can keep pace with global trends,” the Jordan News Agency reported.
Badran said this approach would be in line with Jordan’s 2021-2025 National Digital Transformation Strategy, which aims to modernize the country’s economy by building an attractive investment infrastructure, generating jobs, eliminating unemployment and poverty, and boosting its research and development, creativity and innovation sectors.
The conference is being hosted by the Jordan Society for Scientific Research, Entrepreneurship and Creativity in cooperation with Petra University, and JSSREC chief Reda Khawaldeh said the country had the talent and opportunity to take the lead regionally in innovation and build a strong and sustainable economy for future generations.
“We, in Jordan, are witnessing remarkable growth in this field, and start-ups and digital applications have become an integral part of the national economy’s fabric. This transformation reflects our ongoing efforts to enhance the digital infrastructure and develop policies to support technological innovation,” he said.
Jordan, he added, was not just a participant in digital transformation, but taking the initiative in the region as evidenced by its investment in the development of a strong digital infrastructure and supporting technology entrepreneurs through business incubators and accelerators.
Netanyahu in dispute with Israeli negotiators over ceasefire conditions, source says
- Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that Israel will not give up control of the Philadelphi Corridor
- He has also said Israel must maintain checkpoints in the Netzarim Corridor
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has locked horns with Israeli ceasefire negotiators over his insistence that Israel will not pull out of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor in the south of the Gaza Strip, a person with knowledge of the talks said.
The Philadelphi Corridor, along the border with Egypt, and the Netzarim Corridor cutting across the middle of the Gaza Strip, have been two of the main sticking points in talks backed by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.
Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that Israel will not give up control of the Philadelphi Corridor because it wants to prevent Hamas smuggling weapons and fighters across the border with Egypt. He has also said Israel must maintain checkpoints in the Netzarim Corridor to stop armed Hamas fighters moving from the southern section of the Gaza Strip into the north.
The person said Netanyahu had agreed to shift one Philadelphi position by a few hundred meters but would retain overall control of the corridor, despite pressure from members of his own negotiating team for more concessions.
“The prime minister insists that this situation will continue, contrary to pressure from certain elements in the negotiating team who are willing to withdraw from there,” said the person, who has close knowledge of the negotiations.
Israel’s Channel 12 television reported this week that Netanyahu had been bitterly critical of the negotiating team, led by David Barnea, the chief of the Mossad intelligence service, for being willing to make too many concessions.
More than 10 months after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war, the United States has been pressing Israel for an end to hostilities.
Hamas-led gunmen killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 250 hostages on Oct.7, according to Israeli tallies, while Israeli bombardments have laid waste to Gaza and killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave.
Netanyahu has been under heavy pressure to reach a deal from families of some of the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza and many have been strongly critical of the failure to reach a deal, joining critics have accused him of hindering a deal for his own political purposes.
But with pressure from hard-liners in his own cabinet against any concessions, and with opinion polls indicating a pick-up in the disastrous ratings he had at the start of the war, the prime minister has said repeatedly he aims for total victory over Hamas.
Top US general makes unannounced Middle East trip as Iran threat looms
- Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began his trip in Jordan and said he will also travel to Egypt and Israel
AMMAN: The top US general began an unannounced visit to the Middle East on Saturday to discuss ways to avoid any new escalation in tensions that could spiral into a broader conflict, as the region braces for a threatened Iranian attack against Israel.
Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began his trip in Jordan and said he will also travel to Egypt and Israel in the coming days to hear the perspectives of military leaders.
His visit comes as the United States is trying to clinch an elusive Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which Brown said would “help bring down the temperature,” if achieved.
“At the same time, as I talk to my counterparts, what are the things we can do to deter any type of broader escalation and ensure we’re taking all the appropriate steps to (avoid) ... a broader conflict,” Brown told Reuters before landing in Jordan.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has been seeking to limit the fallout from the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, now in its 11th month. The conflict has leveled huge swathes of Gaza, triggered border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and sparked attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on Red Sea shipping.
Meanwhile, US troops have been attacked by Iran-aligned militia in Syria, Iraq and Jordan.
In recent weeks, the US military has been bolstering its forces in the Middle East to guard against major new attacks by Iran or its allies, sending the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group into the region to replace the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group.
The United States has also sent an Air Force F-22 Raptor squadron into the region and deployed a cruise missile submarine.
“We brought in additional capability to send a strong message to deter a broader conflict ... but also to protect our forces should they be attacked,” Brown said, saying safeguarding American forces was “paramount.”
Iranian response
Iran has vowed a severe response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which took place as he visited Tehran late last month and which it blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed or denied its involvement.
Hezbollah has also threatened a response after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut last month.
Iran has not publicly indicated what would be the target of an eventual response to the Haniyeh assassination but US officials say they are closely monitoring for any signs that Iran will make good on its threats.
“We stay postured, watching the (intelligence) and force movements,” Brown said.
On Friday, Iran’s new Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told his French and British counterparts in telephone conversations that it was his country’s right to retaliate, according to the official IRNA news agency.
On April 13, two weeks after two Iranian generals were killed in a strike on Tehran’s embassy in Syria, Iran unleashed a barrage of hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles toward Israel, damaging two air bases. Israel, the United States and other allies managed to destroy almost all of the weapons before they reached their targets.
Brown did not speculate about what Iran and its allies might do but said he hoped to discuss different scenarios with his Israeli counterpart.
“Particularly, as I engage with my Israeli counterpart, how they might respond, depending on the response that comes from Hezbollah or from Iran,” Brown said.
The current war in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s military campaign has driven nearly all of the Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing at least 40,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
UAE mediates exchange of 230 prisoners between Russia and Ukraine
- It was the 7th such exchange that the UAE has mediated since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022
- Since the war started, the UAE has mediated the release of 1,788 prisoners
ABU DHABI: The UAE mediated the release of 230 prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine, the first such prisoner swap since Ukraine launched its offensive inside Russia this month.
It was the 7th such exchange that the UAE has mediated since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, bringing the total number of prisoners released under the country’s mediation efforts since the war started to 1,788.
In a statement, the UAE foreign ministry said the country’s mediation efforts, which comes a month after a previous successful mediation, reflect the solid ties that it shares with both countries.
The ministry reiterated the UAE’s commitment to supporting all initiatives and efforts aimed at achieving a peaceful resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Dialogue and de-escalation are the only ways to resolve the crisis, which will contribute to alleviating the humanitarian impact caused by it,” the ministry said.
Ukraine’s military on Aug. 6 launched a surprise attack into Russia’s Kursk region, the biggest attack inside Russian territory by a foreign power since World War Two.
Kyiv has said it has carved out a buffer zone in an area that Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, has used to pound targets in Ukraine.
