Israeli weapon seen in rare AP photos of Beirut airstrike appears to be powerful smart bomb

JERUSALEM – In all but the blink of an eye, an Associated Press photographer’s camera captured the moments when a battleship-gray Israeli bomb plummeted toward a building in Beirut earlier to detonate to bring down the tower.

The airstrike came 40 minutes after Israel warned people to evacuate two buildings in the area that it said were located near Hezbollah warehouses and assets. The site was not far from where a spokesman for the militant group had just briefed reporters.

It was a rare glimpse of the use of one of the most powerful bombs in Israel’s arsenal.

What kind of weapon was it?

An examination by independent weapons researchers suggests the weapon was a guided bomb, also known as a smart bomb, launched from an Israeli aircraft.

The tail fin and nose sections indicate it was a 2,000-pound warhead equipped with an Israeli-made targeting kit known as SPICE, according to Richard Weir, senior conflict, crisis, and weapons researcher at Human Rights Watch .

SPICE — Smart, Accurate and Cost-Effective — targeting systems are made by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, owned by the Israeli government. They are attached to a standard unguided bomb to direct the weapon to its target.

Minutes before the attack brought down the building, there were two smaller strikes, in what the Israeli military often refers to as a “rooftop” warning strike, according to AP reporters at place of events military campaign in Gaza, where more than 40,000 have died, according to local officials who do not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, in one of the most destructive conflicts in recent history.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the type of weapon used.

Why does Israel use these types of bombs?

Rafael announces that the SPICE kits can work day or night, in bad weather and in areas blocked against GPS. It says the weapons offer “high lethality and low collateral damage” and “precise impact accuracy.”

It also keeps the attacking aircraft out of harm’s way. The 2,000-pound version can be launched up to 60 kilometers (37 miles) from its target. Rafael also makes smaller versions.

Once released by an attacking Israeli warplane such as an American-made F-15 or F-16, the bomb glides toward its target, adjusting its course with movable fins.

Joseph Dempsey, a military and defense analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, agreed that the photos indicated the weapon was a 2,000-pound SPICE bomb.

He said the guidance system is believed to be based on GPS and what are known as electro-optical guidance systems, which use cameras or sensors to focus on the bomb’s target.

The destructive nature of the weapon comes down to many factors, including the size of the warhead and how it is fused.

“This was clearly a delayed-action fuse. It buried itself in the ground (and) detonated, which has the effect of limiting the fragmentation and blast damage of this particular attack,” he said Weir.

This explains why the destruction was almost entirely confined to the target building. People standing a few hundred meters away felt little or nothing of the explosion and saw little fragmentation.

Where is this bomb made?

The answer is not simple.

“The guide kits for SPICE 2000 are manufactured by Rafael in Israel, although the level of reliance on foreign subcomponents is unclear,” Dempsey said.

In 2019, Rafael and US defense contractor Lockheed Martin signed an agreement to work together to build and sell SPICE targeting kits in the US. At the time, the companies said production of more than 60 percent of the SPICE system was spread across eight US states.

In late October 2023, weeks after the deadly October 7 Hamas attack, the US State Department issued a letter approving the export of additional sets of SPICE bombs to Israel.

That letter, first reported by the New York Times, notified Congress that Rafael USA, an American subsidiary of the Israeli defense company, was seeking the shipment of $320 million. This request was an amendment to an earlier license of $403 million in 2020.

The explosive warhead is a basic bomb, in this case probably a 2,000 lb MK-84 style explosive, where the nose and tail section have been swapped for the guidance system.

Earlier this year, the US halted shipments of these powerful bombs to Israel over concerns about civilian casualties, although Israel is believed to still have supplies in stock.

It is difficult to know for sure where the bomb part was produced. Israel depends on the US for supplies of MK-84 bombs, but it and other countries also produce similar weapons.

Determining that for sure would require recovering the remains with markings, Weir said.

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Associated Press reporter Sarah El Deeb contributed from Beirut.