1. Sep '24Security and weapons

Major civilian casualties: Danish-equipped fighter jets behind bloody attack in Gaza

For the first time during the ongoing war, Danwatch and Dagbladet Information can link Israeli F-35 fighter jets with Danish parts to a specific airstrike in Gaza. On 13 July, the Danish-equipped aircraft participated in an attack with several multi-ton bombs in the middle of a crowded humanitarian zone.

Aftermath Of An Israeli Strike In Khan Younis In The Southern Gaza Strip
A woman reacts after the Mawasi bombing on 13 July. The UN has described how the attack took place close to a makeshift refugee camp with hundreds of residents - hitting residential tents, a food kitchen and a desalination plant where Palestinian refugees had gathered to collect drinking water. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

A blast, a big white mushroom cloud, then wailing sirens, charred tents, women screaming as bleeding children are pulled from the sand.

This is how eyewitnesses describe the situation in Mawasi, shortly after the Israeli Air Force on the morning of Saturday 13 July dropped several multi-ton bombs on one of Gaza’s safe zones, where Palestinians have sought refuge from the horrors of war.

The targets of the attack were Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas’ military wing, and local Hamas leader Rafa Salameh. The two are accused by Israel of being the chief architects of the 7 October 2023 terrorist attack that triggered the ongoing war.

Eyewitness accounts show that the many civilians who were in the densely populated area paid a very high price for the attack.

“There are people everywhere who have lost limbs. It’s a scene that no human being can imagine,” Mahmoud Shahin told the French news agency AFP.

Aftermath Of Israeli Strikes In Khan Younis In The Southern Gaza Strip
Palestinians carrying an injured person after the attack on Mawasi on 13 July. Photo: Hatem Khaled/Ritzau Scanpix
There were many injured children, some had lost their parents. There were children who were paralysed and others who had lost both legs. […] It was clear that many innocent civilians had been injured in this attack.
Scott Anderson
Head of the UN aid organisation UNRWA in Gaza. About how immediately after the attack he saw more than 150 dead and wounded at the local An-Nasr Hospital in Khan Yunis. To the BBC

Danwatch and Information have previously documented that Danish-equipped fighter jets play a key role in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, where they are loaded with multi-tonne bombs and operate around the clock. However, we have not previously been able to document the aircraft’s participation in a specific airstrike.

Now, for the first time during the ongoing war, we can document that the F-35s, which contain advanced military equipment from the Danish company Terma, have participated in a specific air strike with multi-tonne mega-bombs that have resulted in significant civilian casualties.

In a written response to Danwatch and Information, the Israeli military confirms that the F-35s participated in the Mawasi attack on 13 July.

Megabombs used

Photos of the bomb crater and ammunition fragments found at the site show that several megabombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds (almost a tonne) were dropped during the attack.

Experts from the Australian company Ammunition Research Services (ARES), a world leader in its field, have analysed images from the attack site on behalf of Danwatch and Information.

The day after the Mawasi attack, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant visited the Israeli airbase Nevatim to personally thank the participating F-35 pilots and technicians for their service. He later praised their efforts in a post on X:

“Met the team of pilots and technicians who participated in the attack on senior (Hamas, ed.) members in the Khan Yunis area this morning at Nevatim Air Base,” the text of Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s post reads.

The IDF has subsequently confirmed to Danwatch and Information that the F-35 fighter jets participated in the Mawasi attack on 13 July. This was done in a written dialogue with the spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on the WhatsApp messaging service.

They estimate that most likely the very largest 2,000-pound bombs (GBU-31) were used. According to the ARES experts, aerial photos from the Israeli military and photos of the bomb crater show impacts from “at least three” megabombs.

The same conclusion was reached by a number of experts after analysing photographic material from the attack for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The UN has repeatedly warned against the use of such megabombs in Gaza, already before the war one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

The bombs can be lethal within a 300 metre radius and typically they leave a 12 metre wide bomb crater. A report by a UN-appointed commission previously warned that GBU-31 bombs “can rupture lungs and sinuses and tear off people’s limbs hundreds of feet from the blast site’ and “throw metal fragments more than a mile (1.6 kilometres)”.

In May, US President Joe Biden decided to suspend the export of the largest megabombs to Israel due to the high civilian casualties they cause.

Military target in a civilian zone

The UN Human Rights Office describes how the attack took place close to a makeshift refugee camp with several hundred residents. According to the UN, targets hit included residential tents, a food kitchen and a desalination plant where Palestinian refugees had gathered to collect drinking water.

Exactly how many civilians were killed and injured is unclear.

The Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health has stated that 90 people were killed and at least 300 were injured in the attack.

A preliminary assessment by the British NGO Airwars, which specialises in documenting civilian casualties from airstrikes, estimates that at least 57 and possibly as many as 150 civilians lost their lives in the attack.

According to Airwars, eleven identified women and children were among those killed.

Dozens Killed In Israeli Strike Targeting Hamas Military Chief Gaza
Remains of the makeshift tent camp for internally exiled people after the Mawasi attack on 13 July. Photo: Khames Alrefi/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM

Airwars is a UK-based non-profit organisation with more than a decade of experience documenting civilian casualties from air and artillery strikes.

The definition of a civilian is a person who does not belong to a militant organisation and is not actively participating in hostilities. A minimum and maximum number of civilian casualties is always stated.

“We rely on open sources such as Facebook posts, where relatives announce the death of a loved one, and on reports from local journalists documenting the event. Our expert team then identifies the likely minimum and maximum death toll,” explains Emily Tripp, Executive Director of Airwars.

She explains that the 57 identified civilian victims of the Mawasi attack were found through relatives writing about killed relatives on social media. She also states that the numbers may change if new information comes to light.

“We consider all our figures to be ‘live’ – so if someone has new information, for example if an injured person later dies, we update the casualty figures. The same applies if information emerges that a person originally thought to be a civilian is a militant. Then we will similarly update the numbers according to the new information,” says Emily Tripp.

The report from Airwars can be found here – but please be warned against graphic images,

In a press release, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) stated that Hamas leader Mohammed Deif “hid and sacrificed himself along with his people and civilians in the area who were in danger, very few of whom were injured”.

The IDF has not responded to Danwatch and Information’s questions about how many civilians they estimate were killed or injured in the attack.

Even without final confirmation of civilian casualties, international law expert Marc Schack believes that the attack cannot fulfil the rules of war regarding proportionality – that is, whether the military benefits can outweigh the expected civilian casualties.

“There is no formula for these assessments, but in other contexts, very low civilian casualties are generally tolerated, and certainly not as many dead and wounded as seems to be the case here. So everything points to this attack being a violation of the laws of war, even if high-ranking military targets were hit,” says Marc Schack, Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen.

He also believes that dropping multi-ton bombs in an area as densely populated as Mawasi cannot be justified.

“One must assume that the Israeli military knew that there were many people in the area and that there would be heavy civilian casualties,” Marc Schack says.

If Hamas leaders deliberately hid among civilians, such as the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) claims, this is also a violation of the rules of war. But that doesn’t justify dropping megabombs in an area with many civilians, Marc Schack explains.

“It’s a war crime if you exploit the presence of civilians to secure military targets against attack. But it doesn’t give the IDF the right to kill more civilians, because civilians must be protected no matter what. It just means that in that case both sides are breaking the rules of war,” he says.

Amnesty: Illegal to continue exports

The continued Danish military exports for the F-35 aircraft may have legal consequences for Denmark.

This is the opinion of Amnesty, one of four NGOs that have sued the Danish state for exporting arms to Israel.

The Danish-equipped fighter jets’ participation in the attack on Mawasi on 13 July means that Denmark cannot continue its exports for the Israeli fighter jets without violating EU and UN rules on arms exports, they believe.

“The participation of Danish-equipped fighter jets in the Mawasi attack on 13 July shows that we as a country, through our arms exports, are involved in the possible war crimes taking place against the Palestinians in Gaza,” says Annette Rimmer Stubkjær, Policy Advisor at Amnesty Denmark.

The rules require arms exports to be stopped if there is a ‘clear risk’ that the arms could be used to violate the rules of war.

“We believe that this clear risk is very evident in Gaza right now, and that we as a country are therefore obliged to stop arms exports to Israel as soon as possible,” she says.

So far, Amnesty International has investigated 16 Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and concluded that all attacks should be investigated as war crimes. They are also investigating the attack on Mawasi on 13 July.

‘’In the attacks we have investigated, the common denominator is that when you use these huge bombs in a densely populated area, with camps for internally exiled people and in safe zones where there are a lot of people, it will also hit a lot of civilians. Because these bombs are so large that they hit indiscriminately and thus do not differentiate between military and civilian targets,” says Annette Rimmer Stubkjær.

“We are currently investigating what actually happened on 13 July and we have the same concerns about this attack. There are clear signs that the rules of war may have been violated, which means that Denmark must stop exporting arms,” she says.

Amnesty points out that Israel also has precision missiles that can hit much more precisely than the megabombs can, thus minimising the impact on civilians.

“And that’s what the laws of war are all about, that you have to do what you can to avoid and minimise harm to civilians,” says Annette Rimmer Stubkjær.

Denies responsibility

Danwatch and Information have presented the various civilian casualty figures for the Israeli military and have also asked them why they did not attack the military targets with more precise weapons in order to minimise the civilian casualties, as required by the laws of war.

We have also presented the expert assessments that several megabombs were used in the attack and asked how they can justify dropping such bombs in a densely populated area.

The IDF has not answered the questions, but refers to “public statements on the subject”. We have asked if they can refer to specific statements – and if they have commented on the numbers of civilian casualties. The IDF has not responded to this.

Danwatch has also asked Terma, Denmark’s main exporter for the F-35 fighter jets, to comment on the new information that fighter jets with advanced military equipment from Terma were used in the attack on Mawasi on 13 July.

Head of Communications Kasper Hyllested replies in an email that Terma exports the fighter aircraft parts to the US and not directly to Israel.

“Terma does not have information on the extent to which specific F-35 aircraft are equipped with Terma components. Terma does not export any F-35 parts directly to Israel. Our deliveries end up exclusively in the US, where the aircraft are assembled. We do this with the full support and authorisation of the Danish authorities, as Danwatch has previously documented.”

According to Terma’s own website, the company has more than 700 employees working on the production of more than 80 different parts for the F-35 fighter jets.

In an interview with Avisen Danmark in 2022, CEO Jes Munk Hansen put it this way: ‘There isn’t a single F-35 that flies without parts from Terma”.

Lockheed Martin, the US manufacturer of the aircraft, has called Denmark an ‘invaluable partner’ in the production of the F-35 aircraft. In the spring of 2024, both Lockheed Martin and Terma confirmed to Danwatch and Information that there are Danish parts on all F-35 aircraft being produced.

Danwatch and Information have also asked Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) to respond to allegations that Danish-equipped fighter jets took part in the bloody attack on Mawasi on 13 July.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continuously assesses whether Danish arms exports comply with EU and UN rules, which both state that Denmark may not export military equipment if there is a ‘clear’ or ‘overwhelming’ risk that it will be used to violate international law.

In an email response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies that the export of fighter jets to Israel is in violation of the rules.

“In light of the current situation in Gaza, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs already takes a very restrictive approach in the assessment of cases concerning the export of arms and military equipment and dual-use equipment to Israel. It is still the Ministry of Foreign Affairs‘ view that Denmark’s approach to export control, also when it comes to the F-35 programme, is in accordance with Denmark’s EU law obligations and international obligations in general,” the short reply reads.

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