Thomas Wictor

Bombing Hamas command posts is not like 9/11

Bombing Hamas command posts is not like 9/11

Today the Israeli Air Force bombed a twelve-story apartment building in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. The building—named “Zafir 4″—collapsed. In a completely obscene attempt at historical revisionism, Palestinians are calling this “Gaza’s 9/11.” In reality the IDF is bombing Hamas command posts; this was one such installation. The Palestinians say that seventeen people were injured. I’m betting it’s because they stood around and filmed the bombing of the building after they were warned to leave.

So far I’ve seen three videos of the attack. Here are two.

This is the third, filmed by a Palestinian pretending to be hysterical so that really stupid people will feel sorry for him and get angry at the Israelis.

Since he’s got heavy radio traffic in his filming nook, my guess is that he’s a Hamas operative putting on a show for the imbeciles.

The thing is, this was an amazingly surgical strike. You couldn’t ask for a better controlled demolition. The building fell forward, landing in a vacant lot. Absolutely nothing else was damaged.

Since Hamas continues to fire hundreds of rockets at Israel, the IDF is methodically destroying the military capabilities possessed by “the armed wing” of this corrupt, murdering political party.

I think two inert BDU-56 2000-lb cement bombs were used in this strike. So far every video I’ve seen of the IDF taking down a high-rise building shows exactly the same procedure: The bombs are aimed to hit in front of the structure, causing it to collapse forward.

Here are the two Israeli munitions about to hit their target. This is the first.


This is the second.


I layered the two images together so you can see how far apart the munitions were.


Without question they were 2000-lb bombs, but here’s why I think they were inert BDU-56s. This is the moment of impact.


No fireball.

It’s possible that the Israelis use GBU-13 2000-lb explosive munitions with delayed fuses; this would allow the bomb to penetrate far beneath the building before it blew up. But I don’t think that’s the case. For one thing, it could cause horrific collateral damage. Also, even though two bombs were dropped here, there’s only one mushroom cloud.


You saw how far apart the bombs were. They’d produce two mushroom clouds if they were explosive munitions. I believe that what we’re seeing are secondary explosions from the weapons cache under the building.

Hamas stores rockets, land mines, IEDs, TNT, ANFO, mortar shells, antitank missiles, and detonators in its weapons depots. Detonators are primary explosives, meaning they can be set off with impact force. The BDU-56 inert bomb weighs 2000 pounds (907 kg). It reaches a top speed of 690 miles per hour (1110 km per hour). With the mass and speed, we can calculate the energy that this inert bomb releases when it hits.


I’ve been informed that my calculation was wrong, which isn’t a surprise. Math has always been a sweet mystery. So let me use a different method to give you an idea of how much kinetic energy hit the building.

Kinetic energy is measured in joules. Take a compact car that weighs 2800 pounds (1300 kg) and run it into a cement wall at 100 miles per hour (161 km per hour).

That crash created about 1.3 million joules of kinetic energy. One BDU-56 releases 43 million joules at impact. In other words, combine the kinetic energy of thirty-three simultaneous car crashes and slam it into the building. We’re talking a car crash magnified by 3300 percent.

Remember that in this case, two aerial munitions were used. If they were inert BDU-56s, that would be the equivalent of sixty-six simultaneous car crashes. You therefore must increase the impact in that Mythbusters video by 6600 percent. That’s why I believe what we’re seeing is secondary explosions.

From the second video, here’s one munition isolated in midair.


The beginning of the explosion.


The single fireball.


The fireball resolving into a single mushroom cloud. Note that there’s very dark smoke and much lighter smoke, indicating different types of explosives. Israeli aerial munitions use only one kind of high-explosive per bomb.


One mushroom cloud with smoke of several different colors.


The beginning of the second explosion; it starts far to the right.


Then it gets very hot and begins to expand leftward.


Now there are two hot spots: one on the right and one on the left.


The explosion resolves into another mushroom cloud that’s now on the left. It began on the right and traveled several yards or meters in the opposite direction.


Explosions from aerial munitions don’t behave that way.

I therefore conclude that this Hamas command center was hit with two inert BDU-56 2000-lb bombs that set off the weapons cache under the building. The secondary explosions raced through the stacks of weapons from right to left, causing “Zafir 4” to collapse.

This was in no way like 9/11. The people in the World Trade Center weren’t firing rockets at al Qaeda, for one thing. For another, al Qaeda didn’t warn everyone to leave before the World Trade Center was attacked.

Finally, nobody died in this attack. Almost 3000 people were killed on 9/11. Dozens had to jump to their deaths. In this image, the Palestinians are again playacting for the camera. The man is unhurt.


They’re carrying him nowhere, hours after the other building collapsed.

Let me ask you, Palestinians. Would you rather be outside the “Zafir 4” watching it fall over, or would you rather be here?


You don’t get to claim 9/11, Palestinians. Because when the real 9/11 happened, this is what you did.

Do you think I’ve forgotten? Some things are so beyond the pale that you never forget. To me 9/11 was like yesterday, and so is your reaction to it.

Because I have made light of death
And mocked at wounds and pain,
The doom is laid on me to die—
Like the humble men in days gone by—
That angered me to hear them cry
For pity to me in vain.

—Ewart Allen Mackintosh

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