DayofPal– The bomb Israel used in an attack on the beachside café of Al-Baqa some days ago weighed 500 lb (230kg) and was manufactured by the U.S. with the type MK-82, a general-purpose bomb known for its wide blast radius and destructive capability, an investigation by The Guardian reveals.
The Israeli airstrike on a crowded beachside café in Gaza City killed at least 24 Palestinians and injured dozens more, including children, in what human rights experts are calling a potential war crime.
The strike, which took place on Monday, leveled the Al-Baqa Café, a popular two-storey venue frequented by families and young people along Gaza’s beachfront.
Among the dead were children, a prominent filmmaker, a journalist, and a well-known artist. Survivors, many of them severely wounded, were pulled from the rubble in scenes of chaos and grief.
Ordnance experts consulted by The Guardian identified remnants of the bomb as belonging to the MK-82 series, or potentially the MPR500, both of which are powerful, air-dropped munitions widely used by the U.S. military. The impact left a massive crater and destroyed much of the surrounding area.
Despite claims by the Israeli military that it had taken steps to minimize civilian harm through aerial surveillance, experts and rights groups say the evidence points to a deliberate attack on a known civilian area.
“The military would have known the café was full,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “This should be investigated as a war crime.”
Legal experts echoed that assessment, highlighting the use of such heavy munitions in a densely populated civilian zone.
“Even with the best targeting in the world, using heavy munitions in such a space leads to indiscriminate outcomes. This violates international law,” said Dr. Andrew Forde, a human rights law expert at Dublin City University.
The café was not in an evacuation zone, and satellite imagery suggests it had clear visibility from above, further raising questions about the Israeli army’s claim that the strike targeted militants or military assets.
Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosives expert, confirmed that fragments recovered from the site matched components of MK-82 or MPR500 bombs, underscoring the destructive power of the ordnance used.
The strike comes amid growing international concern over the scale and intensity of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
According to Reuters, the United States supplied Israel with vast quantities of advanced weaponry during the first year of the war, including at least 14,000 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, and more than 2,600 small-diameter air-dropped munitions.
In 2024, the Biden administration agreed to resume the delivery of 500-pound bombs to Israel, despite mounting allegations of war crimes and accusations of genocide.
Legal and humanitarian organizations are calling for independent investigations into attacks on civilian sites and for an immediate halt to arms transfers fueling the war.
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