DaysofPal – Over 2,800 Palestinians were killed and vaporized by Israeli forces using US-made bombs in Gaza, according to an investigative report by Al Jazeera. There were hardly any physical remnants of the strikes.
The investigation, published Tuesday, cites field documentation from Gaza’s Civil Defense, which recorded 2,842 cases in which victims’ bodies were not recovered following Israeli airstrikes. Rescue teams reported finding only blood spray or small fragments of human tissue in areas where entire families had been known to be present.
Experts and medical officials link the phenomenon to the use of thermal and thermobaric weapons capable of generating extreme heat and pressure. These munitions produce intense blast waves followed by high-temperature fireballs that consume oxygen and cause catastrophic internal damage.
Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, explained that the combination of extreme heat, immense pressure, and oxidation can cause human tissue to vaporize. Civil Defense teams calculated the number of missing bodies by comparing the documented number of people inside targeted buildings with the number of bodies recovered from the rubble.
“It is chemically inevitable,” Al-Bursh said in remarks carried by Al Jazeera.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the findings.
The investigation identified several US-made weapons believed to be responsible for the destruction. Among them is the BLU-109 bunker-buster bomb, which reportedly killed and vaporized 22 Palestinians during a September 2024 strike on Al-Mawasi, an area previously designated by the Israeli military as a “safe zone.”
Another weapon cited in the report is the MK-84, a 2,000-pound unguided bomb capable of producing temperatures exceeding 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Originally developed during the Vietnam War, the MK-84 can flatten buildings and kill large numbers of people in a single strike. The United States has supplied Israel with thousands of these bombs.
Former US President Joe Biden accelerated shipments of MK-84 bombs to Israel following October 7, 2023, before later suspending transfers of that specific munition while continuing other arms deliveries. In February 2025, President Donald Trump lifted the suspension and authorized additional shipments, stating that the bombs had been waiting in storage.
Palestinian officials report that roughly 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed during the first two years of Israel’s military campaign. The Palestinian Health Ministry states that more than 72,000 people have been killed since October 2023.
Israeli military sources recently acknowledged that the overall death toll is consistent with Palestinian figures after previously casting doubt on them. Independent experts believe the true number of victims may be significantly higher.
The investigation raises serious legal and humanitarian questions regarding the use of high-temperature and high-pressure munitions in densely populated civilian areas, particularly in cases where entire bodies disappear and families are left without remains to bury.
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