Exclusive: Experts say use of heavy munition in Monday’s strike that killed dozens may constitute a war crime

The Israeli military used a 500lb (230kg) bomb – a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area – when it attacked a target in a crowded beachfront cafe in Gaza on Monday, evidence seen by the Guardian has revealed.

Experts in international law said the use of such a munition despite the known presence of many unprotected civilians, including children, women and elderly people, was almost certainly unlawful and may constitute a war crime.

Fragments of the weapon from the ruins of al-Baqa cafe photographed by the Guardian have been identified by ordnance experts as parts of an MK-82 general purpose 230kg bomb, a US-made staple of many bombing campaigns in recent decades.

  • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    2 days ago

    That’s called a precision strike when committing genocide.

    Under international law based on the Geneva conventions, a military force is forbidden to launch attacks that cause “incidental loss of civilian life” that is “excessive or disproportionate” to the military advantage to be gained.

    So all of Israel’s actions since October 7 are a war crime… or does leveling a city of 2.3 million and killing tens of thousands of civilians, to rescue 100 hostages, sound “proportionate”?

    • brown567@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      Well you see, they are not in violation here because the “excessive loss of civilian life” isn’t incidental, it’s the main objective /s