Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu/Getty Images.
The assessment, prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and shared with CNN by three sources familiar with the matter, found that about 40-45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground bombs used by Israel were unguided. The remainder were precision-guided, the assessment said.
Unguided bombs are less accurate and can pose a greater threat to civilians, especially in densely populated areas like Gaza. The number of unguided bombs Israel uses may have contributed to the skyrocketing death toll in Gaza.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said that Israel had been “indiscriminately bombing” Gaza.
When asked to comment on this assessment, IDF spokesman Nir Dinar said: “We will not comment on the types of ammunition used.”
“As an army committed to international law and ethical warfare, we have invested significant resources in minimizing harm to civilians that Hamas has forced to use as human shields,” Israeli spokesman Major Keren Hajioff said Wednesday. “Our war is against Hamas, not the people of Gaza.”
However, experts say that if Israel used the amount of unguided bombs as reported by the US, this would go against Israel's claims of minimizing civilian casualties.
“I was surprised and concerned,” said Brian Castner, a former Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officer who is now a senior crisis adviser on weapons and military operations at Amnesty International.
“Using weapons that can hit targets with precision is bad enough. Using weapons that don’t have that precision is a problem of civilian casualties on a massive scale, and we can’t even assume that these bombs are being dropped exactly where the Israeli forces want them to be.”
Growing divide between US and Israel
The report comes at a particularly sensitive time in US-Israel relations, after the White House on Wednesday struggled to address President Biden's comments about Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" while insisting Israel was protecting civilians.
A growing divide between the two countries has emerged over how the Israeli military is conducting its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, after Hamas launched an offensive on 7 October.
Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan began a two-day visit to Israel on Tuesday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and have “very serious discussions” with Israeli officials, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing on Wednesday. Sullivan will discuss with the Israeli government “efforts to be more precise in our fight and reduce harm to civilians.”
Marc Garlasco, a former military analyst and war crimes investigator for the United Nations who served as chief of the high-value target division of the Pentagon's Operations Division in 2003, said using unguided bombs in a densely populated area like Gaza increases the chance of missing the target and also increases the chance of harming civilians.
The U.S. government believes the Israeli military is using unguided bombs in conjunction with a tactic called “dive bombing,” in which bombers fly toward a target before dropping their bombs, which the official said makes the bombs more accurate because they are dropped closer to the target. The U.S. believes the unguided bombs used in dive bombing can be as accurate as guided bombs, the official said.
But Mr. Garlasco said the Israeli military “needs to use the most precise weapon possible in such a densely populated area.” With unguided bombs, “there are so many variables to consider that can lead to huge differences in accuracy between different bombings.” He also said that the U.S. military has actively stopped using unguided bombs over the past decade.
It is not yet clear what type of unguided bomb was used, but experts say the Israeli military used M117 bombs, which appear to have no guidance system. The Israeli Air Force posted an image of a fighter jet that appeared to be armed with an M117 bomb on the X in October.
A source familiar with the arms transfers told CNN that the US has also provided Israel with unguided bombs, including 5,000 Mk82s, confirming a Wall Street Journal report. But the US has also provided Israel with systems that can convert these unguided bombs into “smart bombs,” including JDAM and SPICE. The US has provided about 3,000 JDAM kits to Israel since October 7, and told Congress last month it intended to send $320 million worth of SPICE packages.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kirby said that Israel was “doing everything possible to reduce civilian casualties.” But the United States has repeatedly urged Israel to be more precise and careful when attacking Hamas targets in Gaza.
But the Biden administration has no intention of placing conditions on military aid to Israel, despite calls from Democratic lawmakers and human rights groups to withhold it until Israel does more to protect civilians. A U.S. official said Biden believes the strategy of quietly pressuring Israel to change tactics has been more effective than threatening to withhold arms aid.
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to CNN)
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