Video footage analyzed by weapons experts indicates that Israeli forces used U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs in their massive attack on Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and flattened several residential buildings.
The Friday night attacks, which killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, included more than 80 bombs dropped over a period of several minutes, unnamed Israeli officials said. Footage published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows eight fighter jets armed with more than a dozen 2,000-pound bombs, according to munitions analysts.
The U.S. has provided Israel with thousands of 2,000-pound bombs since the Hamas-led October 7 attack but has been withholding the munitions since May after the IDF repeatedly used them to assail densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip.
One unnamed Pentagon official told The Washington Post on Sunday that “he had never seen so many bombs used against a single target as in the Nasrallah strike.”
Trevor Ball, a former explosive ordnance disposal technician for the U.S. Army, told the Post that “it’s possible dozens of 2,000-pound bombs were used,” pointing to a video showing extensive damage from the Israeli attack.
“It is a mess of a site,” said Ball.
The New York Times reported that “at least four residential buildings on one street were destroyed” by the IDF strikes Friday night.
“All four of the destroyed structures were residential buildings along the same street,” the Times noted. “Two neighboring apartment buildings that were at least seven stories tall were hit. About 100 yards away, two neighboring buildings that were also at least seven stories were also hit.”
In his statement on the strikes, U.S. President Joe Biden acknowledged neither the apparent use of American-made weaponry nor the civilian toll. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said Sunday that the U.S. was “complicit in this crime” and warned that “the countries of the region and beyond must recognize that the situation is extremely dangerous, and anything could happen at any moment.”
“We are on high alert,” he added.
Since mid-September, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than a thousand people and wounded more than 6,000, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s prime minister, said Israel’s large-scale bombing campaign has displaced around 1 million people.
Abbas Alawieh, a Lebanese American from Michigan and a co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, said over the weekend that “by failing to mention much less condemn the scores of civilians [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu illegally killed this week,” Biden and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris‘ “recent Lebanon statements aren’t just ignoring Arab, Muslim, and anti-war voters in Michigan — they’re actively pushing them away.”
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