One of the first significant studies directly connecting American ammunition to Israel’s widespread killing of civilians during the previous two months of violence in the region, a damning new investigation from Amnesty International, claims that Israel used American-made weapons in at least two airstrikes that killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The human rights organization said in its research that it discovered 43 civilians—19 children, 14 women, and 10 men—were killed by Israeli forces using Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), a bomb-guiding device, in two unlawful attacks on houses full of families. The Deir al-Balah neighborhood in central Gaza was the site of both attacks.
Amnesty International claims that there is no proof that there were “any military objectives at the sites” or that any of the individuals inside the buildings were “legitimate military targets.” As a result, the organization accuses Israel of using American weapons to carry out indiscriminate or direct attacks on Palestinian civilians, which would be considered a violation of international humanitarian law and ought to be looked into as war crimes.
Amnesty Secretary General Agnés Callamard stated in a statement on Tuesday that “two families have been decimated in these strikes, further proof that the Israeli military is responsible for unlawfully killing and injuring civilians in its bombardment of Gaza.”
Amnesty International’s assessment of Israel is “flawed, biased, and premature,” an Israel Defense Forces official told CNN. Amnesty International and the Israeli government have previously clashed over the organization’s study that accused the government of practicing apartheid against Palestinians.
Many American leaders have expressed unwavering support for Israel, especially since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants launched an attack on the country that resulted in about 1,200 deaths and the taking of hundreds of hostages. The U.S. government has been a strong financial and diplomatic ally of Israel.
In spite of Israel’s months-long counterattack, which comes after decades of apartheid-like policies identified by numerous human rights organizations, the United States has mostly stuck with its support of Israel. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, as of Thursday, Israel had murdered over 17,100 individuals in Gaza, with women and children accounting for 70% of the casualties.
It is well known that the Israeli military uses American weapons for both offensive and defensive objectives. However, Amnesty’s report is among the first to specifically link an American mission to an attack on Gaza that claimed a large number of civilian lives.
According to the U.S., the weapon at the heart of Amnesty’s research is the JDAM, a “guidance tail kit that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather’smart’ munitions,” according to the website of the Air Force.
According to the Air Force description, the JDAM system on a bomb will direct it to within 16 feet of the target at its most accurate point “when GPS data is available” or to within approximately 100 feet shortly after an aircraft provides a high-quality siting.
On October 10, the first JDAM attack mentioned in Amnesty’s report took place, killing three neighbors as well as twenty-one members of the al-Najjar family. Surviving the attack, Suleiman Salman al-Najjar informed the group that his wife and four children had perished.
The group’s weapons experts and a “remote sensing analyst” estimated that the Boeing-made JDAM that struck the al-Najjar family house weighed around 2,000 pounds.
“I was taken aback. When I got home, I discovered complete devastation. My eyes did not seem real to me. Everyone was beneath the debris. The house was smashed to pieces. “The corpses were shredded,” al-Najjar stated to Amnesty International.
“My son Nadim’s (20) body was the only one that was found entire. We just found her hand, my 17-month-old daughter Safa,” he went on. We currently reside in a tent beside the rubble of our home with my two surviving sons. Our lives were ruined in an instant. Our family is no longer together. We are living with something that was unimaginable before.
The second attack happened on October 22, when three Abu Mu’eileq family homes were struck by Israeli soldiers. According to the article, the attack claimed the lives of 18 family members, including six women and 12 children, as well as a neighbor. According to Amnesty, the JDAM-guided bomb that killed a significant portion of the Mu’eileq family weighed at least a thousand pounds.
Bakir Abu Mu’eileq, a survivor, told Amnesty International, “We are three brothers married to three sisters, living among ourselves focused on our families and work and far from politics.” “As physicians and scientists, our priority is to lead fulfilling lives and provide a bright future for our offspring.”
“Why our homes were bombed is beyond us. We have never experienced any issues in the past. The same holds true for our neighbors, he declared. “Neither political nor armed people are present. Our families and our lives were utterly devastated and decimated. Why?”
Amnesty International claimed to have discovered metal JDAM fragments among the debris from the demolished homes and published images of the fragments and debris in their report.
The Biden administration needs to be alerted immediately that the Israeli military is using American-made weapons in illegal attacks that have devastating results for people. In a statement, Callamard added, “The mass killings of extended families were made possible by US-made weapons.”
“It is against the duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law to knowingly assist in violations,” the speaker declared. “A state that continues to supply arms being used to commit violations may share responsibility for these violations.”
According to a State Department official who spoke with HuffPost, the department is examining Amnesty International’s report and taking any claims of injury to civilians carefully. The department reaffirmed that Israeli soldiers must abide by the laws of armed conflict and that it has expressed its concerns regarding civilian protection to Israeli commanders.
Amnesty International begged the U.S. government in its report to adhere to its own regulations, which include directives to avoid arms shipments that could contribute to damage to civilians or violate international humanitarian law. The Pentagon had stationed a stockpile of American weaponry in Israel for use in regional crises, but the White House asked last month to have those limits lifted.
When HuffPost asked the State Department if the Biden administration would reevaluate its arms trading agreement with Israel in light of the civilian attacks, the agency declined to comment.
