The bombs, known colloquially as “bunker busters” for their ability to penetrate deep underground before they detonate, were also fitted with the US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) – a precision guidance kit that converts unguided, or “dumb” bombs, into “smart” munitions that can precisely strike a target – according to Ball. On one plane fitted with bombs, pictured taking off in the video, Ball identified at least four as BLU-109s with JDAM kits.
Other types of large bombs may have been used in the operation, Ball added, but only the BLU-190s were visible in the footage. The munitions contain 535 pounds of explosives, significantly less than MK84s, another type of 2,000-pound bomb frequently used by the Israeli military. “BLU-109s give up explosive weight to be able to penetrate targets better than a MK84,” Ball said.
“[It] fits with the strike profile and the penetrating fuze settings and large warhead required to produce that sort of crater,” Bronk said. He added that the combination of BLU-109 bomb and JDAM kit were “what you’d expect for going after a buried, hardened target like that.”
Addressing reporters Saturday, Brig. Gen. Amichai Levin, commander of Israel’s Hatzerim Airbase, said that “dozens of munitions hit the target within seconds with very high precision,” adding that was what was “required to hit this deep underground.”
The Israeli military has repeatedly used 2,000-pound bombs during its deadly campaign in Gaza. Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of such heavy munitions for the huge death toll.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures from the health ministry there. Israel launched its ground offensive and aerial bombardment of the strip in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.
The use of 2,000-pound bombs, which are mostly manufactured by the US, can cause high casualty events in part due to the enormous scale of their impact. The weapon’s blast, or lethal fragmentation radius – an area of exposure to injury or death around the target – is up to 365 meters (about 1,198 feet), or the equivalent of 58 soccer fields.
In May, the Biden administration said it had paused a shipment of the bombs to Israel over concerns of their potential use in the Rafah incursion and their risk to civilian harm.
Israel’s strikes in Lebanon continued at pace over the weekend, killing more than 100 people and wounding more than 350 others in the country on Sunday. The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah, including in attacks by fighter jets on about 45 targets near a village in southern Lebanon.
