LONDON
— On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that military analysts say the
destruction of northern Gaza in less than seven weeks has approached that
caused by the years-long carpet-bombing of German cities during World War II.
اضافة اعلان
US
military historian and author of ‘Bombing to Win’ stated that “Gaza will go
down as a place name denoting one of history’s heaviest conventional bombing
campaigns,” Jo24 reported.
60 percent of the buildings in
northern Gaza
According
to the recent studies, whole neighborhoods have been leveled. By December 4,
more than 60 percent of the buildings in northern Gaza had been severely
damaged, according to an analysis of satellite radar data conducted by Corey
Shear from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York and Jamon van
den Hoek from Oregon State University, Jo24 reported.
70 percent of buildings in some
areas
This
figure rises to up to 70 percent of buildings in some areas. Across the Gaza
Strip, between 82,600 and 105,300 buildings were destroyed, according to
estimates, which count buildings with at least half of their structure damaged.
The
newspaper highlighted that one reason for the scale of destruction is the
ammunition used by Israel. While Israeli Occupation Forces have not released
public information, photos released daily by the IOF show its planes taken
offloaded with munitions identified by Financial Times explosives experts.
Some
munitions are very precise, which can help limit collateral damage. Among them
are 250-pound precision-guided small-diameter bombs, which, due to their
relatively small size, "inherently reduce the potential for collateral
damage," according to the US Air Force.
Israeli
attack helicopters also carried laser-guided Hellfire missiles, the mainstay of
American urban combat against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, and fire-and-forget
Spike missiles, traditionally Israel's weapon of choice for precise, targeted
killings.
However,
Israeli aircraft also dropped unguided M117 "dumb bombs," as first
used by US forces during the Korean and Vietnam wars. In addition, Israel used
2,000-pound GBU-31 bombs, four times larger than the 500-pound bombs that were
typically the largest bombs used by coalition forces in the battle for the
Iraqi city of Mosul, military analysts said.
“It
is striking how often the Israeli military has obtained 2,000-pound bombs,”
said Janina Dell, professor of global security at Oxford University's Blavatnik
School of Government.
The
power of these bombs, enhanced by a global positioning system that turns them
into "smart bombs" or so-called Joint Direct Attack Munitions
(JDAMs), is so immense that survivors of the explosion said they felt like they
were “surfing on liquid Earth,” said Mark Garlasko, a military adviser to the
Dutch organization PAX and a former intelligence analyst at the Pentagon.
The
newspaper drew attention to Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements in which he said:
“We need three things from the United States: munitions, munitions, and
munitions.”
“There
are huge demonstrations in Western capitals,” added Netanyahu, concerned that
political pressure abroad could threaten US arms shipments. “We need to exert
counter-pressure.” “There have been disagreements with our best friends.”
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