Yesterday's attack on a crowded hospital in Gaza caused a global reaction, with some military observers noting that an unguided M117 bomb caused the disaster.
This bomb dates back to the 1950s and is said to have been used in the Korean War. Other military observers commented that so far Israel has used several MK-84 unguided heavy bombs to hit Gaza. These weapons are manufactured in the United States.
Although it is impossible to confirm the exact type of munitions used by Israeli aircraft in recent days, it is likely that they are using combinations of unguided munitions to bomb the Gaza Strip. The bombs appear to have been mounted on Israeli F-16C fighter jets and dropped on crowded areas of the region, causing massive casualties.
The aid packages sent by the US to Israel after the Hamas attack last Saturday included small diameter bombs and JDAM conversion kits, which turn a "dumb" bomb (unguided) into a "smart" bomb (i.e. a precision guided weapon).
The use of unguided weapons has given rise to many accusations against the Israeli army, which say that Jerusalem is deliberately trying to wipe out all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Of course, it is obvious that an unguided weapon can cause more collateral damage than a precision weapon.
The new accusations come shortly after the world condemned Israel for its use of banned phosphorus over crowded Gaza settlements.
Military analysts from around the world can't help but notice some similarities in the tactics the Israelis are using in Gaza to those the Russians have been using for the past year and a half in Ukraine.
Of course, we can in no way compare the level of destruction, as the numbers speak for themselves. More children were killed in Palestine in one week of bombing than in the whole of Ukraine after a year and a half of continuous war.
The similarities lie elsewhere, namely in the types of weapons that the two offensive armies choose to use. Both the Russians and the Israelis these days seem to be dropping either unguided bombs on their enemy or unguided bombs equipped with kits that turn them into precision weapons.
It seems that the Israelis are following the Russian example, which is aimed at keeping Russia's stock of its state-of-the-art guided missiles in stock so that it will not face a shortage in a possibly larger war in the future.
Something similar is being contemplated by the Israelis, who are thought to be saving their destructive weapons for a war with a more powerful enemy, such as Hezbollah or even Iran.
