What fierce weapon did Israel use in the Kfar Kila strike Tuesday night?

On Wednesday, Lebanese media reported that Israeli Air Force jets used the “strongest” weapon yet since the beginning of the conflict in October, in its airstrike on Kfar Kila. The strike destroyed four houses with no casualties being recorded. Israel’s Channel 14 reported that the Israeli army claimed that the explosion was unusually powerful because it had hit an ammunition depot.

The Lebanese daily Anahar, citing reports from “Israeli media,” said that the weapons used in the strike were MK-84 bombs, equipped with GBU-31 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) guidance systems.

What Are MK-84 JDAM Bombs?

According to the U.S. Air Force website, the MK-84 is a 2,000-pound general-purpose bomb that becomes a smart, precision-guided munition when modified with a Boeing JDAM kit, which includes a GPS-guided tail section. This modification enhances the bomb's accuracy significantly, allowing it to strike targets with a high degree of precision, even under adverse weather conditions. According to the U.S. Air Force, JDAMs improve the accuracy of unguided bombs to a circular error probable (CEP) — in other words, how close it is to the target — of five meters or less when GPS data is available. If GPS data is not available, the JDAM can still achieve a CEP of 30 meters or less.

JDAMs in Previous Conflicts

The Guardian reported that JDAMs (American-made) were used in an earlier attack on March 27 in Hibbarieh, southern Lebanon, which targeted a health center in the area, killing seven healthcare workers. The remnants of the JDAMs, including fragments of the bomb’s guidance system, were analyzed and verified by The Guardian and Human Rights Watch.

According to the report, the weapon used in Hibbarieh consisted of a GBU-12 and not a GBU-31, unlike Annahar’s report.

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The Learning from Lebanon paper published by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons in 2012 said that in strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in the 2006 war, around 15 Hezbollah headquarters buildings were destroyed by a 2,000-pound bomb: the satellite-aided GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) delivered by F-15Is.

“A second target complex, consisting of Nasrallah’s headquarters and residence, sustained 40 JDAM hits within a minute. A senior Israeli official later confirmed that Nasrallah himself had been targeted in that attack,” the paper said.

MK-84s in Recent Attacks

Turkish Yetkin Report said that Israeli warplanes on Aug. 10 dropped three MK-84 bombs on a building in Gaza’s Daraj district, which was housing hundreds of Palestinians displaced by the war. The building, part of the al-Tebin school, was hit during dawn prayer time, killing at least 100 Palestinians.

The MK-84, according to Yetkin Report, is known as the heaviest bomb that an F-16 aircraft can carry, reflecting the significant destructive capability of these munitions

Turkey condemned the attack as Israel’s “new crime against humanity” and suggested that the United States, a supplier of these weapons, was complicit by not taking steps to stop the violence

JDAMs are designed to enhance targeting precision, but the MK-84’s enormous explosive power means that their use can lead to substantial collateral damage, especially in densely populated areas.

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Strategic Considerations

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal published in May, the U.S. government postponed the sale of up to 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) to Israel amid its ongoing war on Gaza. The decision to send Israel JDAMs drew criticism of the Biden administration's policy of arming Israel, with some alleging that it may breach U.S. laws prohibiting military aid to nations engaged in human rights violations. The prolonged Israeli bombardment of Gaza, following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack which killed around 1,200 people, has resulted in significant casualties, with nearly 40,000 killed and almost 100,000 injured. Israel faces allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which it denies.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaging in a daily exchange of attacks since Oct. 8 where Hezbollah routinely launches missiles from many southern villages, including Kfar Kila.

These hostilities have left 547 people killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah members, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. In Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians were killed, according to the Israeli authorities.