Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 237?

Unmanned Armored Personnel Carriers and new drones highlight how the IDF's technological innovation and ability learn on the go give it the edge in the war against Hamas.

While operating in the southern Gaza Strip, IDF soldiers located firearms in an UNRWA compound, and other Hamas munitions inside tunnels underneath it.

As Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza are cut off from their weapons supply due to the IDF’s operations on the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, the terrorist groups will go to ground and use their remaining weapons. Hamas has been stockpiling weapons for decades in Gaza. Almost every building has either weapons or other types of terrorist infrastructure inside.

Even if the terror groups disperse their units and go to ground, they will still be deadly. This is clear from the recent attacks in Gaza. The groups continue claim success against the IDF. Even if the claims are unconfirmed or exaggerated, they point to the types of weapons the groups continue to possess.

This is a list from the last few days of the types of weapons the terror groups claim to have.

Weapons inventory

Hamas says it has been able to down a quadcopter drone in Jabalya. It apparently did this with rifle fire. In addition it says it uses the Yasin 105. Reports say this is a type of two-stage high explosive anti-tank weapon that is used with an RPG7 launcher.  It has used these to target tanks and also D9 bulldozers, according to reports at Al-Mayadeen. Hamas also uses sniper rifles and mortars as well as installing explosives in buildings and booby-trapping tunnels.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the last several days has said that it is using anti-tank missiles as well as 60mm mortar shells and 107mm rockets. It claims to be operating in Rafah, as well as Jabalya and Beit Lahia. Similarly the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claim to be using 60mm mortars in their operations. They claim to be carrying out attacks in Rafah, Beit Lahia, Jabalya and also targeting the IDF in the Netzarim corridor. A third group, the Martyr Omar al-Qasim unit, which is part of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine says it has access to 107mm rockets as well as small arms.

Israeli soldier unloads a weapon on top of a tank Israel's border with Gaza, March 30, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

This is likely an incomplete list of the types of weapons being used, but it points to what continues to be common munition usage by Hamas in Gaza. In essence, this arsenal continues to showcase a large number of short range rockets and mortars as well as anti-tank weapons and RPGs.

In general though it appears that Hamas and these groups are forced to resort to using these weapons infrequently as they face off against the IDF on multiple fronts in Gaza. 

They also don’t seem to lack for weaponry, especially when it comes to small arms. Whether they have a large supply or mortars and rockets that they can continue to use is unclear. In general Hamas has not suffered heavy losses in the central camps area of Maghazi, Bureij, Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah, where it likely continues to have stores of weapons and may even be able to produce some simple versions of the weapons it continues to use.  

Humanitarian aid for Gaza is continuing to depart Cyprus by sea and would be kept in floating storage off the enclave until a US-built military pier undergoes repairs, a Cypriot government official said on Thursday.

The US military announced earlier in the week that a purpose-built jetty it anchored off Gaza's coast to receive aid by sea was being temporarily removed after a part of the structure broke off, two weeks after it started operating.

New evidence suggests that US munitions were used in Israel’s strike on Rafah on Sunday, according to a recent CNN analysis of a video from the scene.

CNN says they obtained footage of the camp in Rafah in flames, with people rushing to find shelter from the strikes. They also claim the video shows “burned bodies, including those of children, being pulled by rescuers from the wreckage.”

Palestinian media reported that 45 people were killed and 200 injured after the Israeli strike caused a fire to break out. Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian medics claim that most of the victims were women and children.

Weapon experts

CNN geolocated the videos to a displaced person camp called Kuwait Peace Camp 1. They were able to match details in the video, including the sign to the camp and the ground tiles. 

CNN claims that in the video, parts of weapons are visible. They referred to the help of four explosive weapons experts, who identified the tail of a US-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb (SDB) in the image.

The GBU-39, a Boeing munition, is a high-precision munition “designed to attack strategically important point targets,” and result in low collateral damage, explosive weapons expert and former British Army artillery officer Chris Cobb-Smith told CNN on Tuesday. However, Cobb-Smith stressed that use of any such munition carried risks, especially when employed on a densely populated area. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, Ted Colbert, February 19, 2023. (credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)

Expert Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member, backed up Cobb-Smith’s identification of the GBU-39.

“The warhead portion [of the munition] is distinct, and the guidance and wing section is extremely unique compared to other munitions. Guidance and wing sections of munitions are often the remnants left over even after a munition detonates. I saw the tail actuation section and instantly knew it was one of the SDB/GBU-39 variants.”

Ball noted that this particular GBU-39 was not the variant known as the Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) which has a larger explosive payload.

The experts told CNN that the serial numbers visible on the fragments of the munitions matched those for a manufacturer of GBU-39 parts based in California. This served as further evidence of the bombs being US-made.

Richard Weir, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, and Chris Lincoln-Jones, a former British Army artillery officer and weapons and targeting expert – corroborated this with CNN.

The New York Times reports that the US have actually been pushing Israel to use more of this type of bomb, “which they say can reduce civilian casualties.”

“They are generally more precise and better suited to urban environments than larger bombs,” continued the Times, “including US-made 2,000-pound bombs that Israel routinely uses.”

US response 

CNN reached out to the Pentagon for comment; however, deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said, “I’d have to refer you to Israelis” for specifics. 

Singh also emphasized that the US government was not directly involved with the strike: " We're not on the ground, this is not our operation.”

Palestinians search for food among burnt debris in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced people, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, May 27, 2024. (credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)

“We are continuing to provide Israel with the weapons it needs to defeat Hamas”, she continued.

White House spokesman told reporters on Wednesday “We’re not going to speak to individual payload loadouts on individual Israeli aircraft.”

Initial findings 

The experts’ identification is consistent with a statement from IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari on Tuesday, who said that two munitions with small warheads of 17 kilos of explosives each had been used to target senior Hamas commanders in an airstrike.

Hagari told reporters that the munitions were the smallest that IAF jets could use. 

The traditional GBU-39 warhead has an explosive payload of 17 kilos, according to Hagari.

Hagari stressed that IDF “munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size” and that the IDF was investigating “what may have caused such a large fire”. He said that the investigation would explore the possibility that the fire started due to the strike accidentally igniting Hamas weapons that were being stored at the compound next to the target.

Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Reuters TV)

“It should be noted Hamas has been operating from this area since October 7. Here, on this satellite image 43 meters from the structure we targeted, you can see Hamas rocket launchers.

Hagari added that the IDF was also “assessing footage documented by Gazans on the night of the strike [...] which appear to show secondary explosions indicating that there may have been weapons [that] caught fire.”

Larry Lewis, a former Pentagon and State Department adviser, spoke to the New York Times and said that it seemed Israel had taken steps to mitigate civilian harm.

“Secondary explosions can be hard to anticipate,” Lewis told the Times.

US military aid to Israel

The US is the biggest weapons supplier to Israel, having just signed a bill to provide $15 billion to Israel in military aid last month.

The US Air Force signed a $7.4 billion contract with Boeing on Thursday - the producer of the munitions identified in the Rafah attack - for indefinite provision of JDAM tail kits, spare, repairs and laser JDAM until 2030. These kits turn ‘dumb’ bombs into precision, guided bombs.

The United States must sanction the International Criminal Court should it issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, or American officials and soldiers will similarly find themselves on the dock at The Hague, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned during an emotional press conference in Tel Aviv.

“The same model they're using to come after Israel and the IDF, they will use against us,” Graham said on Wednesday. “So this is a defining moment for the Congress to stand up and push back against out-of-control organizations.”

He spoke on what is his fifth trip to Israel since the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7, in which over 1,200 people were killed and 252 seized as hostage.

Calls to sanction ICC

He met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister Benny Gantz, among others, in the aftermath of an announcement by ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan that he planned to seek arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over their actions in the Gaza war.

“I will do everything in my power to make sure the ICC is sanctioned by the Congress,” Graham pledged.

“I am going to tell every member of the Senate and the House. If you don't send up to the ICC now and push back hard, we’re next,” he predicted.

“They will come after our soldiers… just a sure as I'm standing here. The model used against Israel will eventually be used against American forces to come after our troops in Afghanistan,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen meeting with Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in Jerusalem, on April 17, 2023. (credit: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)

In going after Israel, Graham explained, the ICC is threatening the leadership of a democratic nation with an independent judiciary, a step that sets a precedent for going after other democratic nations such as the US.

“So I'm hoping that Democrats and Republicans can put sanctions together that the President will approve. This is a defining moment for the American military. The American military needs to see Congress in this administration having their back,” he said.

If the Biden administration doesn’t send a clear signal now, he said, it will regret it later.

“I believe there will be substantial bipartisan support to sanction the ICC,” Graham stated, explaining that many Democrats and Republicans understand that what “we do today for Israel will determine our fate tomorrow.”

He also took issue with the International Court of Justice hearing of a claim by South Africa on charges that the IDF’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza had violated the 1948 convention on genocide.

Israel is not intentionally starving the Palestinian people or trying to kill innocent civilians, he said. 

“The IDF is not a war criminal organization. Israel is not Russia. The leaders of your country are not Hamas, the soldiers who wear your flag are not the SS, 

“This is the biggest libel of the Jewish state since its founding,” Graham said.

Nations who are criticizing Israel’s response to October 7 should answer the question honestly, “What would you do if somebody came into your country and did to your people what happened here in Israel?” 

Graham attacked the UN for its bias against Israel, which predated the October 7 attack.

He noted that based on research by his staff, the UN General Assembly had condemned Israel 140 times between the years 2015 and 2022 while condemning other nations around the globe only 68 times.

That includes, he said, bad actors such as Iran and North Korea.

"If you listen to the UN, you would think that Israel is the worst actor on planet Earth,” he said.

“Why are we picking on Israel as a world?” he asked.

The IDF has confirmed that they downed a cruise missile that approached Israel from the east early on Thursday.

Alerts were activated in Golan due to the hostile aircraft intrusion, now confirmed to be a cruise missile.

Israeli media reports have suggested the missile was launched from Iraq.

The IDF also announced that the Iron Dome system intercepted a suspicious aerial target from the direction of Lebanon on Thursday.

The Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) has announced that two of its staff were killed by Israeli strikes on Wednesday.

19 members of the PRCS have allegedly been killed since the start of the war.

⭕️ Palestine Red Crescent teams are laying to rest the bodies of fellow paramedics Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, who were directly targeted by Israeli occupation forces yesterday in the Tel Sultan area west of #Rafah, while they were performing their humanitarian duties.… pic.twitter.com/ERh3ruuqTZ

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 30, 2024

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid organization has suspended its activity in its main kitchen in Rafah, Gaza, as a result of "Israeli attacks," the organization announced on Tuesday.

The organization said it was moving its kitchens north of the Gaza Strip. 

"The situation is dire but WCK's Palestinian team provided almost 100,000 meals yesterday and will increase capacity this week."

In the face of Israeli operations in Rafah, countless families are being forced to flee once again. Ongoing attacks have forced us to pause work at our main kitchen in Rafah and relocate many of our community kitchens further north. The situation is dire but WCK's Palestinian… pic.twitter.com/9BdON26kal

— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) May 28, 2024

Hostile aircraft sirens sounded in Upper Galilee on Thursday morning.