Israel Is Dropping 2,000-Pound Bombs on Densely-Populated Tehran, Reports Say

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Israeli forces are using extremely destructive 2,000-pound bombs on residential areas in Tehran, reports say, slaughtering dozens and violating international law barring the use of such weapons in areas where a disproportionate amount of civilians may be harmed.

A series of strikes in Resalat in eastern Tehran killed between 40 and 50 civilians, completely destroying three residential buildings, on March 9, BBC reports. Israeli forces said the strike targeted a military building used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Basij Resistance Force, a paramilitary organization with both military and internal policing branches.

According to experts, the extent of the damage is consistent with the use of the MK-84 bomb — a U.S.-made 2,000-pound bomb. Israel has received tens of thousands of 2,000-pound bombs from the U.S. throughout its genocide in Gaza and wars with other countries in the Middle East.

Imagery of the residential buildings show them completely blown out, with just a shell of a foundation left standing. Witnesses described hearing multiple strikes in a row at 1 am — while many were awake and breaking their Ramadan fast. Those who survived said the impact from the strike threw them across the room, and they’re now left with nothing, living in a nearby hotel. Many were left buried under the rubble.

“They don’t have the manpower to get her out,” said one woman who waited in the aftermath of the strike for rescuers to find her daughter, per BBC. “My daughter is under the rubble … she’s afraid of the dark.”

Israeli forces have come under intense scrutiny for their extensive use of 2,000-pound bombs on residential areas, hospitals, and the so-called “safe zone” in Gaza. These bombs have killed countless Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and are widely considered to be illegal to use in densely populated areas like Tehran because of their massive blast radius, with a lethal radius of over 1,000 feet.

The strike in Resalat caused damage to buildings up to 65 meters, or 215 feet, away, the analysis found.

The U.S. and Israel have dropped a huge number of bombs on Iran’s capital Tehran, with a population of about 9 million people, and across Iran. Israeli forces said last week that they dropped 12,000 bombs on Iran in the first 18 days of the war, including 3,600 munitions on the Iranian capital alone. U.S. Central Command says it’s hit over 9,000 targets in Iran.

Another U.S.-Israeli strike on a police station — which are only legitimate military targets if they are involved in military operations — in Niloufar Square killed more than 20 people in the opening days of the war. This may also have been carried out with a 2,000-pound bomb, with a blast radius of 70 meters, or 230 feet, satellite imagery showed.

Survivors also described multiple strikes in the Niloufar attack, coming in the evening as people were breaking their fast.

Other reports have found evidence of U.S. and Israeli forces using 1,000- and 2,000-pound bombs in residential areas of Tehran and nearby.

Evidence has shown that some U.S.-Israeli strikes using these bombs are hitting facilities on and next to hospitals and other critical civilian infrastructure.

One CNN report found in an analysis of satellite footage that a strike earlier this month caused a crater 40 feet wide, meaning “it was likely caused by a 2,000 pound bomb,” the report found. The strike hit infrastructure belonging to Iran’s state broadcaster, the IRIB. Right across the street from that strike, 100 feet away, is a major hospital, Gandhi Hospital, which suffered major damage and spurred patient evacuations.

In another instance, a U.S.-Israeli strike hit a police compound with a massive bomb, leveling several buildings — and also damaging two hospitals and an Iranian Red Crescent Society facility nearby.

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