Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe, fragments reveal | Israel-Gaza war

July 6, 2025 Pam Rogers

Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe, fragments reveal

Exclusive: Experts say use of heavy munition in Monday’s strike that killed dozens may constitute a war crime hi did you leave

Jason Burke in Jerusalem

Wed 2 Jul 2025

The Israeli military used a 500lb (230kg) bomb – a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area – when it attacked a target in a crowded beachfront cafe in Gaza on Monday, evidence seen by the Guardian has revealed.

Experts in international law said the use of such a munition despite the known presence of many unprotected civilians, including children, women and elderly people, was almost certainly unlawful and may constitute a war crime.

Fragments of the weapon from the ruins of al-Baqa cafe photographed by the Guardian have been identified by ordnance.

Read the article here.

**Ordnance experts identified the fragments as parts of an MK-82 general purpose bomb. Photograph: Enas Tantesh/The Guardian**

What to the Arab-American and the Child of Immigrants Is the Fourth of July?

July 4, 2025 Pam Rogers

As we walked toward the park for the fireworks display, my 5-year-old held my hand excitedly. “I want to see the fireworks up close,” she said. We’ve only watched neighborhood displays through our window, in previous years. She helped me pull her younger sister in the wagon behind us.

When the first fireworks lit up the sky, both children covered their ears. “It’s too loud!” They cried, looking up at the sky in awe. “How do they shoot them up there? I want to see,” said my older child, quickening her pace. But my heart paused.

For me, it is hard to separate the explosions lighting our night sky from over 600 days of explosions, also funded by our tax dollars, setting alight universities, hospitals, tents, and children in Gaza. The daily atrocities, which include illegally blocking food and humanitarian aid and then “deliberately” shooting at unarmed Palestinian civilians waiting for aid at U.S.-funded distribution sites, have all but faded from our newspapers.

No child should have to look up at the sky in fear that the bombs bursting in air will flatten their home, school, or hospital, or separate them from their loved ones.

Read the article here.

Water Fact: Children in Gaza at risk of dying of thirst

June 30, 2025 Pam Rogers

Water Fact: Children in Gaza at risk of dying of thirst

For decades the Gaza Strip has suffered from an insufficient supply of clean water. Now, according to UNICEF, “just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional in Gaza (87 out of 217). Without fuel, every one of these will stop operating within weeks...If the current more than 100-day blockade on fuel coming into Gaza does not end, children will begin to die of thirst.”

The June 20th briefing by the UN organization continued: “Gaza is facing what would amount to a man-made drought. Water systems are collapsing.” In the words of one Gaza resident, “We have learnt to live without so much. Without our homes; without safety; without loved ones…we have even learnt we can live without food for a week or more…but we cannot survive days without water.”

Please note: there will be no Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine Bi-Weekly Briefs this summer.

Wall Posts of Note...

June 26, 2025 Pam Rogers

Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe, fragments reveal

As we walked toward the park for the fireworks display, my 5-year-old held my hand excitedly. “I want to see the fireworks up close,” she said. We’ve only watched neighborhood displays through our window, in previous years. She helped me pull her younger sister in the wagon behind us.

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