Why did the United States suspend the delivery of powerful MK-84 bombs to Israel?

Is this the end of unconditional American support for Israel? As Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ostensibly ignores US warnings about the risks to the civilian population from the Rafah offensive, President Joe Biden threatened on Wednesday, May 8, to no longer supply certain weapons in the event of a ground operation in this southern city. the Gaza Strip.

“If they go into Rafah, I’m not going to supply them with weapons that have been used throughout history (…) against cities,” Joe Biden told CNN, as the Israeli military claims it is preparing a “limited” offensive in Rafah and the UN says it fears ” blood bath”. According to estimates, about 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by the war, are squeezed into this city.

The threat formulated by the US president has already been partially implemented, according to US officials. Last week, Washington suspended the delivery of 1,800 900-kilogram bombs, likely MK-84s, as well as 1,700 smaller 225-kilogram bombs.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate committee on Wednesday that less powerful and more accurate weapons are needed in a densely populated area like Rafah. According to the UN, the city on the border with Egypt has a population of 20,000 per km2, a density equal to that of the city of Paris within its walls.

“We will continue to do what is necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Lloyd Austin said. “Nevertheless, we are considering some short-term deliveries of security assistance in the context of the events unfolding in Rafah.”

Power Monsters

In service since the early 1970s, the US military used the MK-84 bombs in Vietnam and then, sparingly, in Iraq and Afghanistan for their devastating effect in urban areas. According to Human Rights Watch, this type of ammunition was also used by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia during the bombing of a market in Yemen in 2016, in which about 100 civilians were killed.

Unguided, these bombs have the ability to increase accuracy thanks to the addition of a guidance kit consisting specifically of a navigation system. But in an environment as densely populated as the Gaza Strip, this precaution would not be enough to protect civilians.

Containing more than 400 kg of explosives, these 4.5 meter long bombs create a huge crater and send thousands of fragments scattering in all directions. Nothing and no one can survive there in a radius of 350 meters.

Military experts say these deadly bombs may have contributed significantly to the horrific human toll in the war in the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas, nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of hostilities sparked by the October 7 massacre that left around 1,200 dead.

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To flush out Hamas militants, hidden in Gaza’s complex network of underground tunnels, Israel relied on these devastating bombs supplied by the United States. According to a New York Times investigation published in December 2023, Israel dropped MK-84 bombs on Gaza daily during the first six weeks of the conflict. On at least 200 occasions, the Israeli military also targeted areas designated as safe for Gazan civilians.

For several years now, Israel has been in the spotlight of non-governmental human rights organizations, which accuse it of the massive use of these powerful bombs during previous conflicts in the Gaza Strip.

“These bombs are used to cause extremely significant damage, either indiscriminately or completely intentionally, to residential areas or civilian infrastructure, which is prohibited by international law. Israel has not respected this, neither during this war in Gaza nor before,” said Jean-Claude Samouiller, director of Amnesty International France.

“Diplomatic Message”

After the US announcement, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, described the pause in the delivery of the 900-kilogram bombs as a “very disappointing, even frustrating decision,” during an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 television.

The United States is by far Israel’s largest arms supplier. Last month, Congress approved $14.3 billion in additional arms sales as part of a package that also included aid to Ukraine and Taiwan.

But this unconditional support has been called into question since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Between criticism of American citizens of the Muslim faith and the occupation of college campuses, Democrats are worried about the consequences of the situation in the Middle East on the results of the presidential election in November.

“It is a first step that is certainly not sufficient, but which sends a strong signal to Israel,” underlines Jean-Claude Samouiller.

The decision represents the most spectacular manifestation to date of the disagreements that have poisoned relations between the Biden administration and the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which has remained deaf to American demands for better consideration of the lives of Palestinian civilians. It also comes as Israel has just rejected a ceasefire proposal and continues to seek to destroy Hamas by waging an offensive on Rafah, presented as the Islamist movement’s last bastion.

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On Tuesday, Israeli troops took control of the Rafah border crossing, vital for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians. Israeli forces also carried out “targeted strikes” on the eastern part of the city.

The US decision is “a kind of diplomatic message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him that he needs to consider American interests more than he has done in recent months,” an Associated Press analysis by Itamar Yaar, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council . “At least for now, it won’t have an impact on Israel’s capabilities, but it’s kind of a signal to say ‘be careful’.”

The ball is now in the court of the increasingly isolated Netanyahu government. Indirect talks ended without an agreement on Thursday in Cairo in an attempt to reach a compromise with Hamas. And avoid the much-feared attack on the city of Rafah.