Why the US paused the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel ahead of a possible Rafah attack

WASHINGTON — In attacking Hamas’s underground tunnels in Gaza, Israel has relied on powerful 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States. But now those deliveries are at a standstill.

The U.S. is interrupting a shipment of 1,800 bombs, as well as 1,700 500-pound bombs, U.S. officials said. The decision comes as Israel plans an attack on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza in an attempt to wipe out the last elements of Hamas.

With more than 1 million refugees sheltering in Rafah, U.S. officials are concerned the bombs could cause massive casualties. Human rights groups have long said that Israel’s use of powerful bombs has led to indiscriminate killings of civilians.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate panel on Wednesday that smaller, more accurate weapons are needed for a densely populated area like Rafah.

Still, he made it clear that the decision was not final.

“We will continue to do what is necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “That said, we are currently assessing some short-term security assistance shipments in the context of the events in Rafah.”

A look at the £2,000 bomb and why there is so much concern about its use in Rafah.

While the US has been dropping 2,000-pound bombs from its planes since World War II, current versions date back to the Vietnam War. It is an air-dropped munition, which can carry a higher payload because it has no engine. It is one of the larger munitions in the U.S. inventory, said Ryan Brobst, senior research analyst at the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

The 2,000-pound bomb has multiple variants: some are designed to penetrate deep, underground targets, while others detonate above ground and cause widespread damage. Depending on the variant, and whether the munition is dropped in an open or urban area, the blast radius could be as much as a quarter of a mile away, or in a much more confined area.

The bombs are ‘dumb’ or unguided bombs, but can be converted into more precise weapons with the addition of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, or JDAM kits that add a tail fin and navigation.

That extra equipment allows troops to direct the munition to a target, rather than simply dropping it to the ground from a fighter jet. The kits make the weapons more accurate, but in a dense urban environment a JDAM kit won’t make much of a difference; a precise hit will still have the range to kill unintended bystanders.

US fighter jets, bombers and drones can all fire the JDAMs, and the US began delivering the munition to Ukraine in 2022, a slightly modified version that could be launched from Ukrainian aircraft. Following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, the US delivered 2,000 pounds of ammunition to Israel to assist in its defense.

And unlike other types of ammunition in the U.S. inventory, the Army has an ample supply of it, so offering it doesn’t come with the same kind of supply pressure as the U.S. does with other, more limited ammunition like the 155mm artillery rounds.

The Israeli military has said little about the types of bombs and artillery it uses in Gaza. But based on explosion fragments found at the scene and analysis of footage of the attack, experts are convinced that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave were US-made. They say the 2,000-pound bombs killed hundreds of people in densely populated areas.

Brobst said the 2,000-pound bombs are still needed to help Israel attack Hamas’ tunnel network in Rafah.

Wes Bryant, a weapons expert and retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant who served on an independent task force for the Departments of State and Defense on Israeli weapons use in Gaza, said the pause would be a “huge blow” to Israel’s arsenal.

The 2,000- and 500-pound bombs are some of the most important munitions Israel uses in its seven-month war campaign, Bryant said.

“They burn right through it,” Bryant said. He said the ammunition is made by major American weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon, Northrop, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and General Atomics.

A report prepared last month by the Independent Task Force for the Departments of State and Defense said US sources told one of its members that 300,000 rounds of ammunition had been dropped or fired on Gaza during the first six months of the war.

It cited “credible” media studies showing that there were at least 500 craters in Gaza in the first month of Israel’s campaign alone, equivalent to the use of 2,000-pound bombs.

The possible use of 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah, where more than 1 million people have taken shelter with nowhere else to go, has caused major government concern.

During the hearing, Austin questioned whether the 2,000-pound bomb was the right tool for the Rafah operation.

“It’s about having the right types of weapons for the job at hand. And a small diameter bomb, a precision weapon, which is very useful in a dense environment,” Austin said, “but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could do a lot of collateral damage.” He said the US wants Israel to conduct “more precise” operations.

Israel responded strongly to the US decision. UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the pause “a very disappointing decision, even frustrating,” in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 TV news. He suggested the move stemmed from political pressure on Biden from Congress, protests on campus and the upcoming election.

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.