The use of air-dropped explosive weapons by the Israel Defense Forces, as well as the intensity and frequency with which they are used in densely populated areas in Gaza, have had catastrophic impacts on Palestinian civilians. Since the beginning of Israel’s military response to attacks by Hamas fighters on 7 October 2023, Palestinians have been killed at a nearly unprecedented rate, with families and children particularly impacted. To end the suffering of Palestinian civilians, Israel Defense Forces – and all parties to the conflict – must stop the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas.
Introduction
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups launched rockets and deployed fighters into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. In return, Israel initiated one of the heaviest aerial bombardments in recent history, followed by a ground-invasion in which nearly 40,000 combat troops invaded northern Gaza.1
The direct impacts of Israel’s military response have been catastrophic for civilians, resulting in death and injury on a nearly unprecedented scale. While not explored here, the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) use of explosive weapons in populated areas also has longer-term effects on communities and infrastructure that extend their impact, in different forms, to a wider population over a longer period of time. This is already evident from the damage and destruction of civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, hospitals, schools and camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding as a result.
Much of this damage has been caused by airstrikes conducted by the IDF with large, air-dropped munitions with heavy explosive payloads, including 2,000-pound unguided bombs that lack the accuracy needed to ensure that civilians and civilian infrastructure are not harmed and damaged when such munitions are used in populated areas.
These and other bombs have been dropped so frequently by the IDF, there are few precedents for it in recent history. The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General described the bombardment as “relentless” in its first month and continues to call for better protection of civilians in Gaza and a humanitarian ceasefire to prevent and address the harm caused to civilians.2
The conflict in Gaza is a stark example of the severity of these consequences. To end the suffering of Palestinian civilians, Israeli armed forces – and all parties to the conflict – must stop the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas.
Air-dropped explosive weapons with wide area effects used in populated areas
Gaza is one of the smallest and most densely populated territories in the region, with more than 2.2 million people living in an area only 40 kilometres long and 11 kilometres wide. Gaza’s population density, which on average is similar to that of the city of London, is more concentrated in urban centres such as Gaza City and Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people live in dense neighbourhoods.3
Current bombardment by the IDF has further shifted places of high population density in the area. Since 3 December 2023, tens of thousands of internally displaced people fled to Rafah governate and now live in overcrowded conditions both inside and outside shelters. In this area, the population density has increased fourfold, making it the most densely populated area in the Gaza Strip, according to UNOCHA.4
As such, the use of air-dropped munitions by the IDF has been particularly devastating given the types of munitions dropped in densely populated Gaza, as well as the intensity and frequency of strikes. These factors increase the risk of harm to civilians, as recognised in the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences arising from the use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas, which makes clear that the risk to civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas increases depending on a range of factors, “including the weapon’s explosive power, its level of accuracy, and the number of munitions used.”5
These factors are all in play in Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
Munitions with large blast and fragmentation ranges
Israeli armed forces have dropped at least 29,000 explosive munitions in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to US intelligence.6 During the first two weeks of the conflict, about 90 percent of these were 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs.7 A 2,000-pound bomb, with an estimated crater size of 14 meters,8 was used in the Jabalia refugee camp airstrike that killed at least 126 civilians, including 69 children, on 31 October 2023, according to Airwars.9
Given the heavy explosive payload of these bombs, they are not often the weapon-of-choice by militaries conducting operations in urban areas, and military analysts have been surprised by their use in Gaza given their effects. For example, the largest bombs used by the US and allied forces in the battle for Mosul were 500-pounds.10
The remaining 10 percent of munitions used by the IDF were smaller 250lb bombs. Due to their relatively smaller size, their blast and fragmentation radius is smaller. Used frequently, however, and in populated areas, their use may not reduce the risk of harm to civilians and damage and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Inaccuracy of air-dropped munitions
Only a few days after the conflict began, an IDF spokesperson stated that “thousands of tonnes of munitions” had been dropped on Gaza in those days, and that “while balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage.”11
US intelligence estimates that of the 29,000 air-dropped munitions used by the IDF since 7 October 2023, about 40-45 percent of them have been unguided, or ‘dumb’ bombs, as opposed to ‘smart’ or guided bombs that allow for more accurate targeting.12 However, even when large munitions are turned into ‘smart bombs’ through the addition of positioning systems that makes targeting more accurate, the force of the bombs stay the same, as does the destruction on the ground.
Air-dropped bombs used by the Israel Defense Forces The IDF uses general-purpose Mark 80 bombs, often dropped by fighter jets. These United States-supplied, air-dropped bombs vary in size and amounts of explosives, including 2,000-pound, 1,000-pound and 500-pound variations. The IDF also uses the M117, another general purpose bomb, weighing 750-pounds.13 These general-purpose bombs, or ‘dumb’ or unguided bombs, can be made to be more accurate. They can be employed by fighter jets that make a steep dive close to targets, called ‘dive bombing’.14 They can also be fitted with GPS/INS guidance kits, which in turn makes them ‘smart’, or precision-guided. For the Mark 80 series, this includes the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) guidance system. Mark 80 bombs fitted with this kit are then referred to as GBU-38, 32 and 31 bombs.15 Other munitions used by the IDF include laser-guided “Hellfire” missiles and Spike missiles, which are often dropped by attack helicopters.16 Spike missiles can also be fitted with GPS/INS kits, including the Spice Family Gliding Bomb Assemblies.17 |
High frequency of airstrikes
The scope of harm to civilians in Gaza can be attributed in part to the number of airstrikes conducted by the IDF in the short amount of time since the conflict began. The number of munitions dropped in Gaza amounts to just under 500 bombs per day (though it is estimated that in the first two weeks of Israeli military operations, the IDF deployed at least 1,000 air-dropped munitions daily), with the blast and fragmentation effects of these bombs felt in much of the territory that constitutes Gaza and is home to millions of Palestinians.18 The Jabalia refugee camp alone was hit by airstrikes nearly every day in October.19
To allow for this high frequency of airstrikes, the IDF is said to have shortened its “kill chains” to require less than 10 minutes for ground forces to collect intelligence to identify a target and to strike it.20
Catastrophic impacts on civilians – death and injury
As a result, IDF airstrikes are killing civilians at a rate for which there are few precedents in the last century. As of 30 December 2023, more than 21,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza since the start of hostilities, including more than 5,100 women and 7,700 children who, when combined, account for about 70 percent of all those killed, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza (which does not distinguish between civilian and armed-actor casualties).21 Israeli authorities estimate that at least 5,000 Hamas fighters are among those killed.22
More than 56,000 Palestinians were also reportedly injured, while even more people remained missing and presumed buried under rubble. The numbers of those killed and injured increase on a daily basis.
The Israeli military’s use of large, air-dropped bombs, deployed frequently in densely populated neighbourhoods in the Gaza Strip, have killed so many people, so quickly, that there are few military operations with comparable casualty rates. The number of women and children reportedly killed in Gaza since the start of hostilities is already higher than the estimated 9,000 to 11,000 civilians that were killed in the battle of Mosul, Iraq, by all parties to the conflict, which lasted nine months and served as another stark example of the destruction caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
Amongst the dead in Gaza are entire family units – an indication of the degree to which civilians, not armed-actors, have disproportionately suffered as a result of bombardment by the IDF. In just one airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp on 31 October 2023, three families were killed in their entirety, according to Airwars.23
Other families suffered tremendous losses of extended relatives. An IDF airstrike on 22 October 2023 levelled two buildings in Deir al Balah, killing 68 members of the Joudeh family as they slept, after some had fled from northern Gaza as Israel had ordered residents to do. The Joudeh family was buried side-by-side in a long grave, while other families spent days searching through rubble looking for missing children and other family members.24
Survivors of airstrikes shared with Amnesty International the horror they faced in the aftermath of the attacks. Family members were buried in rubble. In most cases, only pieces of their loved ones could be recovered. Only a “small number of relatives were recovered more or less whole, otherwise bodies were reduced to shreds.”25
The UN Secretary-General was the first to describe Gaza as a graveyard for children. UNICEF has also made this clear:
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.”26
More than 7,700 Palestinian children had been killed as of 30 December 2023 when the MoH stopped reporting disaggregated fatality figures. This accounted for 40 percent of all Palestinian deaths reported by the MoH.27 In mid-November 2023, UN officials believed at least 1,500 missing children were believed buried under rubble.
Parents of children in Gaza have struggled to keep them safe. As families are forced to flee, they risk being separated, and UN workers have observed unaccompanied children amongst the internally displaced.28 Parents, as they did in previous escalations of violence in Gaza, sometimes put their children to sleep in different parts of their homes, putting greater distances between them to increase the chances of them surviving attacks.29
Thousands of children have also been orphaned by the conflict, arriving at hospitals without any surviving family members, prompting medical staff in Gaza to introduce a new acronym by which they are referred – WCNSF or ‘wounded child no surviving family’.30
The death and injury from the IDF’s use of air-dropped explosive weapons extends to all ends of the Palestinian community. Health workers, aid workers, journalists and others have also been killed while working to provide support to civilians impacted by the conflict. As of 30 December 2023, the MoH reported that 144 United Nations staff, 312 heath workers and 106 journalists had been killed since the start of hostilities.31
Conclusion
The foreseeable impacts on civilians of blast and fragmentation from explosive weapons – where civilians are killed and damage and destruction of civilian infrastructure leads to long-term consequences for entire communities – are well-documented. The current conflict in Gaza is a stark example of the severity of these consequences. As civilians are killed at a nearly unprecedented rate, airstrikes and the use of other explosive weapons by the IDF continue.
As the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and others call for better protection of civilians and an end to the suffering of civilians, the international community can look to the Political Declaration as a framework for action to prevent and address the harm to civilians from the use of these weapons.
In line with the Declaration’s commitments, actions should be taken by the Israeli armed forces – and all parties to the conflict – to take into account both the direct and long-term effects on civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, to facilitate rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to those in need, and to stop the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas in Gaza.