JDAM Bomb, not Hamas Rocket, Caused Gaza Hospital Blast that Killed Over 500 Palestinians

A U.S. made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kit integrated into the Mk-84/BLU-109 bomb likely caused the severe blast and destruction of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Gaza that massacred an estimated 500 Palestinians receiving treatment there.

Turkish defense media, SavunmaSanayiST tweeted that the JDAM-integrated Mk-84/BLU-109 bomb, which is almost the largest ammunition that an F-16 can drop caused the extensive top-down destruction of the hospital building.

However, an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) spokesperson said that the hospital building was brought down by a Hamas rocket that "misfired" while being fired from its rooftop.

In a concise video released in English on Tuesday evening, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman, stated, “An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.”

“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our possession indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit the hospital in Gaza,” he added.

IDF has released an alleged audio conversation between Hamas and Islamic Jihad regarding the misfired rocket on October 18.

SavunmaSanayiST countered by saying that it is impossible for the destruction to have been accomplished by a rocket.

Shortly after, videos drawing comparisons between the sound of Tuesday's explosion and that of a JDAM kit started spreading across the internet. The perceived resemblances in the sounds led to widespread assumptions that Israel was behind the incident.

On October 15, U.S. investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh reported citing Israeli sources that Israel is planning an aggression on Gaza using a new version of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs capable of killing all people within "one-half mile" from the dropping site.

"The current Israeli war planners are convinced, the insider told me, that the upgraded version of JDAMs with larger warheads would penetrate deep enough underground before detonating - thirty to fifty meters - with the blast and resulting sound wave ‘killing all within one-half mile’ … The insider also said the current planning calls for the JDAMs attack if authorized, to come as early as Sunday or Monday, depending on how the forced expulsion of Gazans from Gaza City and the south proceeds, with a ground invasion to follow immediately," Hersh wrote in his blog Substack.

Other reports said that Hamas rockets carry a small warhead to give them "lift" during ascendence phase of the rocket. In addition, the propellent they carry is just enough to boost the rocket on its ballistic trajectory after which the rocket enters into a free fall phase.