US resumes sending shipments of 500-pound bombs to Israel
Al Jazeera
The US will continue to withhold supply of 2,000-pound bombs over concern they will be used in densely populated areas.
The United States has agreed to resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel while continuing to hold back supplies of powerful 2,000-pound bombs over concerns that Israeli forces will use the weapons in densely populated areas of Gaza, a US official said.
The US in May paused one shipment of 2,000-pound (900kg) and 500-pound (230kg) bombs due to concern over the impact the weapons could have if used by Israel during its ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinian civilians had sought shelter.
“We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs, particularly for Israel’s Rafah campaign which they have announced they are concluding,” a US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, on Wednesday.
On detonation, a 500-pound bomb can severely harm or kill everything or anyone within a 20-metre (65-foot) blast radius.
A 2,000-pound bomb has a destruction radius of 35 metres (115 feet), according to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), which conducts defence policy research and analysis.
