Israel's 6,000 bomb-drop in Gaza reminds Sri Lanka's 2009 civil war; US Raqqa, Russian Gronzy bears equivalence

The Israeli Air Force's 6,000 bomb drops in six days in the Hamas-held Gaza Strip bring back the horrors of the intense bombings around the world. It has an eerie similarity to the cluster bombs dropped by Sri Lankan forces in Mullaithivu at the height of civil war with LTTE in 2009 and the Russian offensive in Chechenya's capital Gronzy in 2009. It also bears equivalence to the US pummeling the Syrian City of Raqqa with around 4,000 bombs per month during the IS conflict in 2017.

Hyderabad: Israeli Air Force announced that it has dropped about 6,000 bombs since it began its counter-offensive to the bloody Saturday incursion of Hamas from Gaza, a Palestinian enclave. This means Israel dropped at least a thousand bombs a day for the past six days.

Lecturer for German and European Studies at King's College London, Alexander Clarkson, drew parallels to the Sri Lankan military bombed Jaffna and Mullaithivu in 2009 and the 2000 battle of Grozny, in which Russian forces levelled the Chechnya's capital.

Sri Lanka's cluster bombs killed thousands of civilians in the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The UN has reported between 40,000 and 70,000 dead, other independent analysts and war monitors estimate the casualties at 140,000.

"A lot of analysts and journalists are struggling to grasp that at this rate the best points of comparison will end up being early 00s Grozny, late 00s Jaffna and Mullaitivu than any of the US or European counter-insurgency wars of the last 20 years(sic)," Clarkson wrote in X.

• A lot of analysts and journalists are struggling to grasp that at this rate the best points of comparison will end up being early 00s Grozny, late 00s Jaffna and Mullaitivu than any of the US or European counter-insurgency wars of the last 20 years. https://t.co/ZVgeaNaQBb

  — Alexander Clarkson  (@APHClarkson) October 12, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  A lot of analysts and journalists are struggling to grasp that at this rate the best points of comparison will end up being early 00s Grozny, late 00s Jaffna and Mullaitivu than any of the US or European counter-insurgency wars of the last 20 years. https://t.co/ZVgeaNaQBb

  — Alexander Clarkson  (@APHClarkson) October 12, 2023

  ">

  A lot of analysts and journalists are struggling to grasp that at this rate the best points of comparison will end up being early 00s Grozny, late 00s Jaffna and Mullaitivu than any of the US or European counter-insurgency wars of the last 20 years. https://t.co/ZVgeaNaQBb

  — Alexander Clarkson  (@APHClarkson) October 12, 2023

According to Israel, dozens of fighter jets and helicopters attacked a series of terrorist targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip. "So far, the IAF has dropped about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets," it said.

Israel's update on its offensive was made in X by its official handle amid humanitarians warning that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of running out of food, water, electricity and critical supplies. According to the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, no aid can come in from the outside for the 23 lakh residents of the sealed-off Palestinian enclave, and some 220,000 displaced people are sheltering in Gaza schools.

An independent analyst pointed out that Israel's bombing rate has surpassed the attacks carried out by the US in the Syrian City of Raqqa in 2017.

• 🚨FOOTAGE: The Israeli army displays its ammunition and says that it will attack Gaza with all of this ammunition.
  
  Source: Bader pic.twitter.com/ZuF6gjGGP9

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 12, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  🚨FOOTAGE: The Israeli army displays its ammunition and says that it will attack Gaza with all of this ammunition.
  
  Source: Bader pic.twitter.com/ZuF6gjGGP9

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 12, 2023

  ">

  🚨FOOTAGE: The Israeli army displays its ammunition and says that it will attack Gaza with all of this ammunition.
  
  Source: Bader pic.twitter.com/ZuF6gjGGP9

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 12, 2023

6,000 bombs into Gaza in 6 days. For comparison, during the air campaign against ISIS in 2014-19, the US-led coalition dropped 2,000-5,000 munitions per month across all of Iraq and Syria. US monthly bomb drops only exceeded 4,000 during the 2017 destruction of Raqqa, analyst Wesley Morgan wrote in a post in X, quoting the Israeli Air Force.

• Israel blockade: Gaza is on brink of running out of food, water, electricity and critical supplies, says UNWFP https://t.co/tkz1UYhO8I

  — ETV Bharat (@ETVBharatEng) October 13, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  Israel blockade: Gaza is on brink of running out of food, water, electricity and critical supplies, says UNWFP https://t.co/tkz1UYhO8I

  — ETV Bharat (@ETVBharatEng) October 13, 2023

  ">

  Israel blockade: Gaza is on brink of running out of food, water, electricity and critical supplies, says UNWFP https://t.co/tkz1UYhO8I

  — ETV Bharat (@ETVBharatEng) October 13, 2023

From June 6 to October 17, 2017, the US forces fired more than 30,000 shells into Raqqa during the four-month and one-week military campaign, according to Amnesty International.

A commander in the Hamas terrorist organization and a group of operatives engaged in directing terrorism against Israel were assassinated, the Israeli force said, adding that the neighborhoods of Beit Hanoun, Shejaiya, Rimal, El-Furkan, and Tuffah suffered extensive and heavy damage in the attack.

"The airstrikes killed hundreds of terrorists and attacked over 3,600 targets, including command and control targets, strategic military infrastructure, weapons production sites, intelligence assets, leadership targets, naval superiority targets, and rocket system targets. We will continue to attack forcefully and relentlessly, as long as necessary," the Israeli Air Force said.