Killing fields: How US-made 'small' GBU-39 bombs are wreaking havoc in Gaza

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

More than 100 Palestinians were killed in the latest Israeli airstrike on a school building sheltering displaced people in Gaza City—a tragedy that local authorities described as a "horrific massacre."

The dead included women, children, and the elderly, who were torn apart by bombs reportedly weighing 2,000 pounds each, according to media reports citing Gaza government authorities.

Images circulating on social media showed a wide array of bombs scattered on the street near the al-Tabin school in Gaza City's Daraj district. Among them was the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, supplied by the United States.

The GBU-39 is a 250-pound precision-guided glide bomb manufactured by Boeing, an American military contractor based in Virginia. It allows warplanes to carry out numerous bombings with high precision, according to military experts.

Boeing produces Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and GBU-39 bombs, with a significant portion supplied to the Israeli regime for use against Palestinians in Gaza.

Notably, Boeing secured a $33 million contract for Small Diameter Bomb I (SDB-I), also known as the GBU-39, in November of last year, just two months into Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which has already killed nearly 90,000 Palestinians.

The company's website says GBU-39's "smaller weapon size and four-place carriage increases the number of weapons a platform can carry", which makes it destructive.

On October 8, 2023, a day after the Palestinian resistance launched ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Storm’ against the Zionist occupation, the Joe Biden administration in the US dispatched a wide assortment of sophisticated and lethal weaponry to Israel.

A flight from the US arrived in Tel Aviv carrying GBU-39, MK-82, and MK-84 bombs, which were first used on a large scale during the bombing of Al-Ahli Hospital on October 17.

The hospital bombing resulted in the killing of at least 500 Palestinians, including women and children, most of whom had taken shelter there to escape the indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes.

“We were performing surgery at the Baptist hospital when a strong explosion occurred, and the ceiling fell on the operating room… This is a massacre,” British-Palestinian medic Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta said after the devastating attack.

Just days before this bombing, approximately 1,000 GBU-39 bombs had been delivered to the Israeli regime in two installments, along with 100,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.

The US-made bombs continued to cause devastation in the besieged Palestinian territory as the genocidal war raged on, laying bare deep collusion between Tel Aviv and Washington.

In May, video footage analysis revealed that the devastating airstrike on a camp sheltering displaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, again involved US-made GBU-39 bombs.

The bombing occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan, southern Gaza Strip, and killed dozens.

In June, an Israeli strike on a UN school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, which killed several Palestinians, including women and children, was also carried out using GBU-39 bombs.

Footage of the debris, filmed by Palestinian journalist Emad Abu Shawiesh and later reported by many media outlets, showed remnants of GBU-39 bombs used in the attack.

These same bombs have been used in almost every massacre carried out by the Israeli military over the past ten months, including the Tent massacre in the city of Rafah in May 2024, when the serial numbers on the bombs were traced back to arms factories in California.

At least 45 people were killed in the massacre, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Between October and December alone, reports indicate that the US sent 5,400 MK84 bombs, 5,000 unguided MK82 bombs, 1,000 GBU-39 bombs, and 3,000 JDAMs to Israel, intended for use against Palestinians.

A report by The New York Times in June noted that the GBU-39 has "increasingly become the weapon of choice for the Israeli military" in its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

“Two weapons experts told The New York Times that Israel appears to have increased the use of these bombs since the start of the year, compared to the war’s earlier days, when they were used in only 10 percent of airstrikes against Gaza,” the report stated.

“As a recent spate of Israeli strikes demonstrates, even a relatively diminutive bomb can inflict severe civilian casualties.”

Just hours before the Israeli military bombed the school in Gaza City on Saturday, the Biden administration announced an additional $3.5 billion in aid to the Israeli regime.

This military aid is part of the $14.5 billion supplemental funding bill passed by the US Congress in April, which human rights advocates see as a sign of US involvement in the genocidal war.

A June report by the UN Human Rights Office raised "serious concerns under the laws of war with respect to the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack."

The report detailed six attacks involving the use of GBU-31 (2,000 lbs), GBU-32 (1,000 lbs), and GBU-39 (250 lbs) bombs from October 9 to December 2, 2023, on residential buildings, schools, refugee camps, and markets, killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

CNN also confirmed that US-made GBU-39 bombs were used in the Israeli bombing of a school in Gaza City, which killed more than 100 Palestinians.

The horrific images following the bombing were widely circulated on social media, showing parents carrying plastic bags containing the remains of their children killed in the attack.

“After killing 110 people, mostly children, during morning prayers with GBU-39 bombs provided by the US, Israel continued its attacks on Gaza throughout the day. The US and Western countries are now the main perpetrators of the massacre,” wrote one social media user.

Jewish Voice for Peace, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), said that as displaced Palestinians were preparing for dawn prayers at al-Tabin School on Saturday, the Israeli military rained US-made GBU-39 bombs on them.

“Not a single intact body was recovered from Al-Tabin school. Palestinians were forced to search through the unrecognizable remains of dozens of people as they attempted to identify loved ones,” the post stated.

“This is the eighth attack by the Israeli military on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians this month.”

A video of a Gaza girl who survived the bombing and denounced all those complicit in the daily massacres of Palestinians in Gaza went viral on social media, drawing anger and outrage worldwide.

"We are fed up with this war. Oh world, we are fed up. Not only me, everyone is tired of this situation,” she said, tears in her eyes. “I will ask God not to forgive you, in life and in the afterlife.”

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