Israel’s air campaign has been unusually fierce.

It is reported to have dropped 29,000 munitions in total. That is almost exactly as many as America and Britain dropped on the entirety of Iraq in the first month of the war in 2003 and equivalent to just under 500 bombs per day.

Israel also uses unusually high numbers of unguided munitions—from 10% of total in first two weeks after Oct 7th, to 40-45% now.

Israel has bought around $1.9bn-worth of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) from American companies since 2015, including 14,500 JDAM kits and thousands of laser-guided missiles.

Since October 7th America has sent at least 15,000 bombs to Israel, including an estimated 3,000 JDAMs. In November Biden told Congress he planned to send $320m-worth of SPICE munitions, which are like JDAM kits.

Israel is not necessarily running out. Many Israeli officials worry that a bigger war is looming with Hizbullah, a Lebanese militant group.

Israel has also threatened to strike the Houthis in Yemen, another Iran-allied militant group that has been firing ballistic missiles towards Israel. These groups, along with Iran, have access to more sophisticated air-defence systems than those of Hamas, capable of striking targets farther away and higher up.

Israel’s air force probably wants to preserve its stockpile of smart bombs for these better-defended enemies.

Source: The Economist