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“This study supports emerging evidence that the Israeli military has disregarded the protection of hospitals, mandated by international humanitarian law, through the systematic pattern of dropping massive M-84 bombs close enough to hospitals to knowingly cause significant damage, injury, and death. The damage to hospitals due to these and other munitions will have immediate and long-term effects on the health of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” said Yara M. Asi, PhD, Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida, Visiting Scientist at the FXB Center, and one of the authors of the study.

Using publicly available data from CNN and The New York Times satellite imagery investigations, the authors created a map of the Gaza Strip with the locations of craters formed by air-dropped 2000 lb bombs. They then overlaid this map with geospatial data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) and Open Street Map to measure the distances of these bomb craters to hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The 2000 lb bombs, made by the American arms manufacturer General Dynamic and Ordinance Tactical System, have a blast radius that can kill people 360 m away from the point of detonation and can cause severe injury and damage building infrastructure 800 m away. Data analysis showed at least one bomb crater within 800 m of 83% percent of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and nine of those hospitals had 2000 lb bomb craters within 360 m. Most hospitals in Gaza had several bomb craters within dangerous proximity.

The 2,000-pound bomb’s large 365-meter (about 1,198-ft) lethal fragmentation radius is evident in many videos reviewed by CNN, where several buildings are seen to have been flattened in a single strike.

On October 24, Israel struck a location less than 100 meters (about 328 ft) away from Wafa Hospital. In an interview with al-Jazeera almost immediately after the strike, the hospital’s director, Fouad Najm, said the attack had “terrified the patients and medics.” The hospital has since gone out of service because of sustained nearby strikes and fuel outages.

“Clearly the hospital is within the lethal fragmentation range of a 2,000-pound bomb. It would likely have caused damage,” said PAX’s Garlasco.