"Major civilian casualties: Danish-equipped fighter jets behind bloody attack in Gaza", 1 September 2024

A blast, a big white mushroom cloud, then wailing sirens, charred tents, women screaming as bleeding children are pulled from the sand.

This is how eyewitnesses describe the situation in Mawasi, shortly after the Israeli Air Force on the morning of Saturday 13 July dropped several multi-ton bombs on one of Gaza’s safe zones...

Now, for the first time during the ongoing war, we can document that the F-35s, which contain advanced military equipment from the Danish company Terma, have participated in a specific air strike with multi-tonne mega-bombs that have resulted in significant civilian casualties...

Experts from...Ammunition Research Services (ARES)...have analysed images from the attack site on behalf of Danwatch and Information.

They estimate that most likely the very largest 2,000-pound bombs (GBU-31) were used. According to the ARES experts, aerial photos from the Israeli military and photos of the bomb crater show impacts from “at least three” megabombs.

The same conclusion was reached by a number of experts after analysing photographic material from the attack for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The Danish-equipped fighter jets’ participation in the attack on Mawasi on 13 July means that Denmark cannot continue its exports for the Israeli fighter jets without violating EU and UN rules on arms exports, they believe...

Danwatch has also asked Terma, Denmark’s main exporter for the F-35 fighter jets, to comment on the new information that fighter jets with advanced military equipment from Terma were used in the attack on Mawasi on 13 July.

Head of Communications Kasper Hyllested replies in an email that Terma exports the fighter aircraft parts to the US and not directly to Israel.

“Terma does not have information on the extent to which specific F-35 aircraft are equipped with Terma components. Terma does not export any F-35 parts directly to Israel. Our deliveries end up exclusively in the US, where the aircraft are assembled. We do this with the full support and authorisation of the Danish authorities, as Danwatch has previously documented.”...

In an interview with Avisen Danmark in 2022, CEO Jes Munk Hansen put it this way: ‘There isn’t a single F-35 that flies without parts from Terma”...