“DUMB BOMBS”
Up to 45 per cent of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions that Israel has dropped on Gaza since Oct 7 have been unguided “dumb bombs” according to a US intelligence assessment reported by CNN.
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a member of Israel’s security cabinet and Netanyahu’s Likud party, rejected Biden’s characterisation of Israel’s strikes as indiscriminate.
“There is no such thing as ‘dumb bombs’. Some bombs are more accurate, some bombs are less accurate. What we have is mostly pilots who are precise,” he told Army Radio, saying that only militants were targeted.
Israel launched its campaign in retaliation for a rampage by Hamas, the Iran-backed group that rules Gaza, whose fighters killed 1,200 Israelis and seized 240 hostages in a cross-border raid on Oct 7.
Since then, Israeli forces have besieged the coastal strip and laid much of it to waste, with nearly 19,000 people confirmed dead, according to Palestinian health officials, and thousands more feared buried under the rubble.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes, many several times.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency said hungry people were stopping trucks and eating food aid immediately. “We meet more and more people who haven’t eaten for one, two or three days,” Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.
Israel has extended its ground campaign from the north to the south this month. It says it is offering warnings where it can before striking an area.
In the main southern city Khan Younis, where advancing Israeli forces reached the centre this week, a whole city block had been bombed overnight to dust. Though most people had fled after Israeli warnings, neighbours digging with a hand shovel believed four people were inside. One body had been recovered.
“May God take revenge on them,” said Nesmah al-Byouk, returning to the ruins of the home she had fled three days ago. “We came and saw everything destroyed, the house, the factory, our neighbours and house are all gone. Where we can we go to now?”
Source: CNA
