Gaza Herald _ What is unfolding in Gaza is not simply mass killing but the deliberate deployment of weapons designed to erase human beings beyond recognition. When people are killed without leaving bodies behind, death itself becomes harder to count, mourn, and prosecute. The reported “evaporation” of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli bombardment signals a shift toward forms of warfare that do not just end lives, but actively obstruct accountability, memory, and justice. This is not a tragic byproduct of war; it is a warning about how modern weapons are being used to dissolve both human bodies and the legal limits meant to protect them.
A new investigation reveals that Israeli forces used American-made munitions in Gaza that instantly killed and effectively erased more than 2,800 Palestinians, leaving no recoverable remains behind.
According to the report, these deaths were caused by weapons that generate extreme heat and pressure, including thermal and thermobaric bombs. Civil defense teams in Gaza documented 2,842 cases in which victims were completely destroyed, with nothing left at strike sites except blood residue or small fragments of human tissue.
Medical and emergency officials explained that the combination of intense heat, pressure, and oxidation produced by such bombs causes human flesh to evaporate. To calculate the number of victims whose bodies disappeared entirely, civil defense teams compared the known number of people present at targeted locations with the number of bodies recovered afterward.
The investigation identifies several US-manufactured weapons linked to these incidents. Among them is the BLU-109 bunker-buster bomb, which was reportedly used in a September 2024 strike on Al-Mawasi, an area Israel had designated as a “safe zone.” That attack alone resulted in the complete disappearance of 22 Palestinians.
Another weapon cited is the MK-84, a 2,000-pound unguided bomb capable of producing temperatures exceeding 6,300 degrees Fahrenheit. First deployed by the United States during the Vietnam War, the MK-84 is designed to destroy large structures and can kill dozens of people in a single strike. Thousands of these bombs have been supplied to Israel.
Arms transfers accelerated after October 7, 2023, with large shipments approved under the Biden administration. Although some deliveries were later paused, others continued. In early 2025, the restrictions were lifted entirely, and additional bombs were sent.
Palestinian officials estimate that roughly 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure was destroyed during the first two years of the assault. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, a figure that Israeli officials have recently acknowledged after previously disputing it. Experts warn that the actual death toll is likely far higher.
