Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on a Gaza cafe : Jason Burke / The Guardian

Shared by Tom McDermott

Of the many horrors reported during Israel’s war on Gaza, this story hit me differently. 

Years ago, during one of several visits to Gaza as Regional Director for MENA, I sat with the head of UNICEF’s Gaza office for a quick lunch at the al-Baqa café. 

At the time, Gaza was still recovering from one of its several brief Israeli wars, as now, remained under blockade. Its people were enduring enormous hardship — and I remember how strange, and frankly embarrassing, it felt to walk through the rubble of a recent Israeli attack as an American.

That moment in the café — looking out at the calm, blue Mediterranean — felt like a fleeting illusion of normalcy in a long day of visits to damaged schools, hospitals, and UNRWA offices. I remember thinking how grim things already were. And yet, compared to the utter devastation of the past two years — the erasure of neighborhoods, hospitals, and now, that very café — those days seem almost peaceful.

Now I look at the photo in this article and think: I was right there. And as the journalist writes, what I see is “beyond anything imaginable”. 

Click here for the article

Summary
The Israeli military dropped a 500 lb (230 kg) MK‑82 US‑made bomb on the family‑run al‑Baqa café in Gaza City’s seafront, based on bomb fragments identified by ordnance experts. The café was crowded, with 24 to 36 Palestinians killed—among them a filmmaker, an artist, a housewife, a child—and dozens injured. Despite air‑dropped surveillance to “mitigate risk,” no evacuation orders had been issued to warn civilians. International law experts argue that using such a large bomb in a clearly civilian setting is likely unlawful and may constitute a war crime. Human Rights Watch, legal scholars, and weapons analysts stressed the disproportionate scale of the attack and have called for formal investigations.

Quotes

“The use of such a large weapon in an obviously crowded café risks that this was an unlawful disproportionate or indiscriminate attack and should be investigated as a war crime.” – Gerry Simpson, Human Rights Watch
“It is almost impossible to see how this use of that kind of munition can be justified.” – Marc Schack, Univ. of Copenhagen
“When you see a situation where there are heavy munitions being used, … that will necessarily create an indiscriminate outcome that is not in compliance with … the Geneva conventions.” – Dr Andrew Forde, Dublin City University, on civilian safety

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