John Spencer
Newsweek, July 19, 2024
“If the diplomats fail to demilitarize Hamas, the brutal war is likely to resume—this time spilling out to southern Lebanon as well, where Hezbollah is also ready to fight from underground strongholds.”
This week, Israel very likely killed the long-time head of Hamas‘s military, Mohammed Dief, with multiple 2,000-pound bombs. This comes directly after United States announced it was lifting the restriction on 500-pound bombs shipments to Israel but keeping a block on larger diameter munitions to include 2,000-pound bombs. In his press conference on the issue, President Joe Biden laid out his rationale. “I have not provided them 2,000-pound bombs,” President Biden said. “They cannot be used in Gaza or any other populated area without causing great human tragedy and damage.”
President Biden’s remarks reflect the conventional wisdom about these powerful weapons. Like all conventional wisdom, it is at least in part misguided and unfair. To be sure, the war in Gaza has been incredibly destructive, and thousands of Palestinians have tragically been killed. Unfortunately, widespread destruction and high civilian casualty rates are common in urban warfare. And in Gaza, the numbers are as high as they are because Hamas has cynically dug itself in beneath densely populated areas.
The penetration depth of a 2,000 pound bomb, depending on the kind and whether it must go through concrete, is believed to be from 16 feet to more than 30 feet. Hamas’s military wing is hidden in more than 400 miles of tunnels, some as deep as 200 feet underground. And to Israel’s north, Hezbollah, like Hamas, has spent years digging tunnels deeper and deeper to protect what is believed to be an arsenal of over 100,000 rockets, missiles and drones. Southern Lebanon is referred to as the “Land of Tunnels” due to the miles of deep buried underground networks.
Israel has used its 2,000-pound bombs against what it assessed to be military targets in bunkers and tunnels, even while knowing that there would be unavoidable civilian casualties—just as the United States has done in its past wars.
Some weapons experts and veterans have recently claimed that the United States has rarely used 2,000-pound bombs. That’s simply not true.
… [To read the full article, click here]
__________________________________________________
