Israel used a US weapon in a March airstrike which killed seven healthcare workers in southern Lebanon, according to a Guardian analysis of shrapnel found at the site of the attack, which was described by Human Rights Watch as a violation of international law.
Seven volunteer paramedics, aged between 18 and 25, were killed in the 27 March attack on an ambulance center belonging to the Lebanese Succor Association in the town of al-Habariyeh in south Lebanon on 27 March.
The Guardian examined the remnants of a 500lb Israeli MPR bomb and a US-manufactured Joint Direction Attack Munition (JDAM) recovered by first responders from the scene of the attack. Pictures of the shrapnel sent by the Guardian were further verified by Human Rights Watch and an independent arms expert.
JDAMs are guidance kits produced by US aerospace company Boeing which attach to 500-2,000lb “dumb bombs” and convert them into GPS-guided precision missiles. They have been key to Israel’s war effort in Gaza and Lebanon, and have been one of the most requested munitions from the US.
Shrapnel recovered from the al-Habariyeh attack included a fragment with writing identifying it as a “bomb MPR 500”, as well as the parts of a JDAM which clip the bomb to the guidance system and remnants of its motor.
Human Rights Watch said that its own investigation concluded that the strike on the healthcare center was unlawful and should have implications for US military assistance to Israel.
“Israel’s assurances that it is using US weapons lawfully are not credible. As Israel’s conduct in Gaza and Lebanon continues to violate international law, the Biden administration should immediately suspend arms sales to Israel,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Five days after the attack on healthcare workers in Lebanon, Israel killed another seven aid workers employed by the World Central Kitchen in Gaza. This attack led to global outrage and was called a “serious mistake” by Israel.
The revelation of Israel’s use of US weaponry in an unlawful attack comes as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is set to deliver a report to Congress on 8 May on whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons do not violate US or international Law.
The Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said that the attack on al-Habariyeh should be reflected in Blinken’s report to Congress.
“These reports are deeply concerning and must be fully investigated by the Biden administration, and their findings should certainly be included in the NSM-20 report that is due to be submitted to the Congress on May 8,” Van Hollen said in an email.
Public pressure is mounting to limit or stop US weapons transfers to Israel as more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military operation in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack which killed 1,200 Israelis.
In Lebanon, the attack on al-Habariyah shook the country, with hundreds showing up to pay homage at the funeral of the young medical workers: twin brothers Hussein and Ahmad al-Shaar, 18; Abdulrahman al-Shaar, 19; Mohammad Hamoud, 21; Mohammad al-Farouk Aatwi, 23; Abdullah Aatwi, 24; and Baraa Abu Kaiss, 24.
The ambulance center had been set up in the small village in south Lebanon at the end of October, as cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel began to intensify.
The airstrike came without warning between 12:30 and 1am as the volunteers were on call for the night shift. No fighting had been reported in the area that day.
The 500lb bomb leveled the two-story building, with the force of the blast hurling four of the volunteers from the center and trapping three others under the rubble.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that the airstrike in al-Habariyeh killed a “prominent terrorist belonging to Jamaa Islamiya”. Jamaa Islamiya is a Lebanese Islamist political group which also has an armed wing that has fought alongside Hezbollah against Israel since 7 October.
A representative of Jamaa Islamiya said that while some of the paramedics belonged to the group, none of them were members of its armed wing.
The Guardian asked the Israel Defense Forces which of the paramedics they killed were militants and what steps the IDF took to minimise civilian harms in the strike, but received no reply.
Three first responders, as well as witnesses present during the rescue operation, said that only seven bodies were recovered from the rubble: those of the medical volunteers.
“We examined every centimeter looking for parts of bodies and their possessions. We saw nothing military-related. We knew [the victims] personally, so we could identify their remains,” Samer Hardan, the head of the local Lebanese civil defense center who participated in the rescue operation, said.
The volunteers, most of them young university students, joined the ambulance corps after the war started – out of what their parents said was a sense of duty to their community.
“I told them that it was dangerous to do this type of work, but they said that they accepted the risk. I don’t know what Israel was thinking – these were young people excited to help others,” said Kassem al-Shaar, whose twin sons Ahmad and Hussein were killed in the airstrike.
Under the 1997 Leahy law, the US defense and state departments are prohibited from providing assistance to foreign security forces when there is “credible information” that they have committed gross violations of human rights.
The Guardian reported in January that internal state department policies have spared Israel from application of that law.
A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said it was aware of reports of the attack on al-Habariyeh and that it was in touch with its Israeli counterparts to get more information.
“The US is constantly working to ensure defense articles provided by the US are being used consistent with applicable domestic and international law. If findings show violations, we take action,” the spokesperson said.
According to Josh Paul, a non-resident fellow with Democracy for the Arab World Now, a democracy and human rights non-profit, and former state department official involved in the weapons transfer process, arms transfers containing munitions like JDAMs are approved with little scrutiny.
“The state department has approved several of these transfers on a 48-hour turnaround. There is no policy concern on any munitions to Israel other than white phosphorus and cluster bombs,” Paul said.
Israel has relied heavily on US transfers of large dumb bombs, particularly the 500-2,000lb MK series, and accompanying JDAMs to fight Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to Paul, JDAMs have been some of the “key items” Israel has requested from the US in the past six months.
Human rights groups have raised concerns about Israel’s use of these dumb bombs – and the potential complicity of the US in any misuse of the weapons by retrofitting them with guidance kits.
In December, Amnesty International called on the US to stop arms transfer to Israel after it found remnants of JDAMs in two attacks in Gaza which killed more than 43 people.
Since 7 October, Israel has killed 16 medical workers in Lebanon, including 10 in a single day at the end of March. Medical personnel are protected under international law and targeting them is considered a war crime.
In the same period, 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 72 civilians. On the Israeli side, 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.
“My sons wanted to do humanitarian work, and look what happened to them. Israel wouldn’t dare to do what they did if it wasn’t for the US standing behind them,” al-Shaar said.