Photo: An analysis of the footage of the F-15 jets that carried out the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah revealed they were carrying GBU-31 bombs that can be made from Depleted Uranium or DU . Israel dropped around 80 GBU bombs in its operation targeting Nasrallah alone.
Depleted Uranium or DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, meaning its radioactivity persists indefinitely, making it a long-term environmental hazard.
By Ya Libnan Editorial Board
Beirut – Israel’s unprecedented use of a massive number of bunker-buster bombs in Lebanon has raised concerns that it was using depleted uranium in its ongoing bombardment. The United nations is urged to conduct an impartial investigation given the potentially disastrous consequences.
Following Israel’s violent bombing of the southern suburb of Beirut, the Syndicate of Chemists in Lebanon issued a statement on October 5 warning against Israel’s possible use of depleted uranium. The Syndicate cited the extensive urban destruction and the penetrative capacity of Israeli missiles, capable of burrowing through buildings and creating craters tens of meters deep as grounds for suspecting depleted uranium use.
In this context, the head of the Chemists Syndicate, Jihad Abboud, asked yesterday via “Al-Nashra”, website : “How is it possible that the Scientific Research Center’s report does not include that Lebanon was hit with bunker-busting bombs, and if that is normal, why does it not tell us what type of bombs were used to assassinate the former Secretary-General of “Hezbollah” Hassan Nasrallah in the southern suburb?”
He points out that “modified depleted uranium is used in weapons to penetrate fortifications.” Elnashra tried to convey this question to the director of the Scientific Research Center, Ms. Tamara Al-Zein, who refused to respond
The potential repercussions of depleted uranium (or DU) use for human health and the environment are so severe that any suspicion, however remote, must be thoroughly investigated, according to a report by Mondoweiss
DU is typically suspected when bunker-buster or armor-piercing ammunition is deployed.
Israel is particularly suspect given its historical record of using prohibited weapons — including during its current war on Lebanon — and its means to use DU.
Although only a scientific investigation can conclusively confirm or refute Israel’s use of DU in Lebanon, how likely is it that Israel deployed DU in its recent attacks?
What is depleted uranium, and why is it dangerous?
Uranium is a rare, radioactive element found naturally in the crust of the earth requiring costly extraction. It consists of three isotopes (U-234, U-235, and U-238), only two of which are useful for producing nuclear energy and bombs. The third isotope, U-238, is unsuitable for nuclear fission, but because the former two are rare, raw uranium must be “enriched” by extracting these components, leaving U-238 as waste — uranium that has been depleted, or DU.
In the 1970s, DU properties were found useful for military use. Its high density (1.7 times that of lead) and low cost (since it is a byproduct of uranium enrichment) incentivized its use in tank armor and armor-piercing ammunition. Israel is thought to have tested DU on Egyptian forces during the 1973 October War, and the U.S. added it to its arsenal in 1977. DU rose to prominence in the military as well as public debates during the 1991 Gulf War and subsequent conflicts.
DU poses significant health and environmental risks. While not classified as a nuclear weapon, it emits alpha radiation, which can cause severe cancers, birth defects, and organ failure if ingested, inhaled, or embedded in the body through shrapnel.
DU poses significant health and environmental risks. While not classified as a nuclear weapon, it emits alpha radiation, which can cause severe cancers, birth defects, and organ failure if ingested, inhaled, or embedded in the body through shrapnel. Radioactive particles from fired munitions disintegrate to dust on impact and contaminate the air, water, soil, and food chain, making radiation difficult to contain.
Small radioactive particles can be carried far from the battlefield. A 2006 study detected radioactive contamination in Europe following the use of DU in Iraq. DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, meaning its radioactivity persists indefinitely, making it a long-term environmental hazard.
Confirming Israel’s definitive use of DU in Lebanon can only be done through sample analysis. However, the likelihood of its use can still be gauged based on the strategies used by the anti-DU movement in the 1990s.
Assessing the likelihood of DU use starts by identifying the bombs deployed by Israel. This can be done through records of weapon shipments, images of bombs on fighter jets, and bomb patents.
The UN documented Israel’s use of GBU-31, GBU-32, and GBU-39 bunker-buster bombs in Gaza. In December 2023, the U.S. sent 100 BLU-109 warheads to Israel . Patents reveal that BLU-109 warheads are a component of GBU-31 bombs and can be made of DU or tungsten, the former being the cheaper option. An analysis of the footage of the F-15 jets that carried out the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah revealed they were carrying GBU-31 bombs.
During the 2003 Iraq invasion, the U.S. dropped a total of 24 GBU bombs alongside 440-2,200 tons of DU. On the other hand, Israel dropped around 80 GBU bombs in its operation targeting Nasrallah alone. This suggests an inverse relationship: as the use of modern bunker-buster bombs increases, the need for DU bombs to achieve similar outcomes decreases.
Israel’s history with DU
Israel was among the first to use DU in 1973 and its nuclear program is an open secret. It was also suspected of using DU in the 2006 Lebanon War, though the evidence is murky. In 2006, experts also raised alarms about the extent of the destruction — which couldn’t be attributed to other bombs at the time — and detected elevated radiation levels around two bomb craters, though these were never officially documented.
The former director of the Pentagon’s DU program stated that all the evidence needed to convict Israel was there: from the U.S. sending DU weapons to Israel at the outbreak of the 2006 war, to its documented use in a photo taken of Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border loading DU shells into a tank.
According to a new research report, the extremely high prevalence of diabetes and obesity in the Gulf nation of Kuwait might be linked to the very high levels of uranium in these individuals. This in turn could be associated with the large amounts of depleted uranium dumped here in the form of US munitions during the Gulf war of 1990-91.
More than half of the Kuwait population is obese and a quarter are diabetic. Prolonged uranium uptake is already known to be associated with the development of diabetes and impaired kidney function. It causes both radiation-induced and chemical toxicity to the human kidneys, lungs and liver through a variety of mechanisms. Quite low exposures of 50 ppb (parts per billion) to 20 ppm (parts per million) can cause uranium poisoning with impaired renal function.
It is mighty time for the UN to investigate if Israel used depleted uranium to bomb Lebanon
Elnashra/ Modoweiss/News Meical