The New York Times quoted weapons experts as saying that Israel has increased the use of American GBU-39 guided bombs in air strikes on Gaza since the beginning of this year, compared to the first days of the war, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians. Palestinians.
Experts added that this type of relatively small guided bomb, each weighing 250 pounds, inflicts heavy and severe losses on civilians.
Last month, an unexploded bomb of the same type was found in a school in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, and the distinctive back fin of the same type of bomb appeared at the site of another raid on May 13 at a school in Nuseirat, which resulted in the deaths of at least 30 people. .
Analysts said that remnants of GBU-39 bombs appeared outside residential homes that were subjected to deadly Israeli air strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in April, elsewhere in Gaza City in March, and in Tal al-Sultan in January. the second.
These examples of Israel’s use of these bombs represent only a fraction of what experts generally estimate, but several analysts have made clear that debris found in the wake of airstrikes and requests to replenish Israeli stocks indicate that Israel has clearly intensified its use of this bomb.
Israel says that only its army has an accurate list of the number of times and places it has used GBU-39 bombs since the war began on October 7.
Specific goals
These bombs have a range of at least 40 miles, and are guided by a Global Positioning System (GPS) with coordinates for specific targets identified before the weapons are launched.
Experts say that the GBU-39 bomb is so accurate that it can hit specific rooms inside buildings, and most warplanes can carry 8 bombs at a time, and direct each of them independently to different targets.
Israel has been deploying GBU-39 bombs since 2008, and uses them in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.
The United States has delivered at least 9,550 bombs of this type to Israel since 2012, including 1,000 of them that were shipped last fall.
Since the seventh of last October, the Israeli war on Gaza has left more than 120,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.