Photo Shows Apparent Israeli Smart Bomb Dropped in Beirut

A photo taken by an Associated Press (AP) photographer on Tuesday shows an apparent Israeli smart bomb dropped in a Beirut suburb.

The photo was taken moments before the bomb detonated, leveling a building that Israel said housed Hezbollah facilities.

Israel warned people to evacuate two buildings in the area 40 minutes before the airstrike. There were no immediate reports of causalities from the bombing.

Independent arms researchers believe the weapon used in the attack was a guided bomb, also known as a smart bomb, launched from an Israeli jet.

A bomb dropped from an Israeli jet hits a building in Ghobeiri, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, October 22, 2024. AP Photo/Bilal Hussein

Details About the Bomb

Richard Weir, a senior conflict, crisis and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the tail fin and nose sections of the bomb indicate that it was a 2,000-pound warhead attached to an Israeli-made guidance system called SPICE (Smart, Precise-Impact and Cost-Effective).

SPICE systems attach to standard unguided bombs to direct the weapons to their intended target.

"This was clearly a delayed action fuse," Weir said of the way the bomb was fused. "It buried down into the ground [and] detonated, which has the effect of limiting the fragmentation and blast damage of this particular strike."

The Israeli military declined to comment to the AP about the type of weapon used in the strike.

The origin of all of the components of the bomb is not clear.

"The guidance kits for the SPICE 2000 are manufactured by Rafael in Israel, though the level of reliance on foreign sub-components is unclear," Joseph Dempsey, a defense and military analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is an Israeli government-owned weapons manufacturer.

More on the Beirut Strike

Tuesday's strike sent smoke and debris flying into the air a few hundred yards from where a spokesperson for the Lebanese militant group had just briefed journalists about a drone attack that damaged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home over the weekend.

Hezbollah's chief spokesperson, Mohammed Afif, said the group was responsible for Saturday's attack on Netanyahu's home in the Israeli coastal town of Caesarea. The prime minister and his wife were not home during the attack, according to Israel.

What's Happening in the Middle East?

Israel's conflict with Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has intensified in recent weeks. Hezbollah said on Friday that it planned to launch a new phase of fighting by sending more guided missiles and exploding drones into Israel.

The militant group's longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late September, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Israel said one of its airstrikes earlier in October, which hit the same Beirut suburb where the apparent smart bomb dropped on Tuesday, killed Hashem Safieddine, a Hezbollah official widely expected to have succeeded Nasrallah.

Meanwhile, last week, Israeli troops killed Hamas' top leader Yahya Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage. Around 100 hostages remain in captivity, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel began its military campaign in Gaza following the October 7 attack, which has killed over 42,000 Palestinians so far, according to local health officials who don't differentiate between civilians and combatants but say more than half of those dead are women and children.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.