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. Between 24 and 36 Palestinians were killed in the attack on the cafe and dozens more were injured. The dead included a well-known film-maker and an artist. 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 have been identified by ordnance experts as parts of an MK-82 general purpose 230kg bomb, a powerful US-made bomb. An IDF spokesperson said the attack on the cafe was under review and that "prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance."

Ongoing Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip have killed 57,012 Palestinians, with nearly 134,592 wounded, injured, or maimed since 7 Oct 2023. Among the casualties are 6,454 deaths and 22,551 injuries reported since 18 March, when US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) capitulated on the Republican budget, releasing billions of dollars of American taxpayer funds to Israel which then resumed its ethnic cleansing campaign. In March, USSECSTATE Marco Rubio released $4bn of American taxpayer funds to Israel in military assistance. In the past 24 hours alone, 142 Palestinians were killed and 487 others were injured, as the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) intensified its attacks across the besieged enclave. Source: Death Warrant for Gaza