Israel continued to launch airstrikes on areas in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 19 people and injuring 60, the New York Times reported, citing information from Gaza officials.
Gaza's Ministry of Health expects the death toll from the latest Israeli air strike to rise as rescuers search for missing people in the rubble.
A Civil Defense emergency services official in Gaza, Muhammad al-Mughaier, said 40 bodies had been found at the site of the airstrike. The reason for the discrepancy in the numbers is not yet clear.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued a statement saying that the airstrike in Al-Mawasi - a coastal area south of Gaza - targeted three senior Hamas members involved in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli military said the Civil Defense figures “do not match the information” it had, but did not provide its own casualty estimate or comment on the figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health. Israel said it had carried out a “precision airstrike” and had tried to minimize the risk to civilians.
Videos of the aftermath of the Al-Mawasi attack, verified by The New York Times, show bomb craters where some of the tents once stood.
Two weapons experts contacted by the New York Times, Patrick Senft of the consulting firm Armament Research Services and Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British Army artillery officer and director of Chiron Resources, said the size of the bomb craters was essentially consistent with the use of 2,000-pound bombs.
A third expert, Trevor Ball — a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician — identified a piece of debris found at the scene as “the tail of a SPICE-2000” — a precision guidance kit used with 2,000-pound bombs.
The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in July in Al-Mawasi using 2,000-pound bombs targeting senior Hamas commander Mohammed Deif. The military later said Mr. Deif was killed in the attack.
The US has warned Israel against using such powerful bombs in the Gaza Strip. President Joe Biden suspended the export of US-made 2,000-pound bombs to Israel earlier this year.
The 2,000-pound American-made bomb is the largest in the Pentagon's Mark 80 series. The US military often refers to the Mark 80 as a "multi-purpose" bomb, meaning it can be used against virtually any target expected to be encountered in combat.
In addition to the 2,000-pound Mk-84, the Mark 80 series also includes 250-pound, 500-pound, and 1,000-pound versions: the Mk-81, Mk-82, and Mk-83. According to the New York Times, in the first two weeks of fighting in Gaza, about 90 percent of the munitions dropped by Israel on Gaza were satellite-guided bombs weighing between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds. The rest were 250-pound bomblets.
In addition to the Mk-84, Israel also uses another 2,000-pound bomb, the BLU-109, which can penetrate underground to reach buried targets like Hamas tunnels. Much of the BLU-109's weight comes from its much thicker steel shell than conventional weapons. The BLU-109 explodes with the force of just 525 pounds of TNT, roughly the same as the 1,000-pound Mk-83.
