Hellfire and Ginsu

(content warning: description of bombing scene/victim)

Hellfire is the name of an American missile manufactured by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup Grumman. In its initial design it was created to deliver an explosive charge from the air to an armored vehicle or tank by honing in on a reflected laser pointing at the target. It has been in use since 1984 and several variations of the original design have been developed over the years.

The missile is over 5 feet long and weighs about 100 pounds. It can travel at a top speed just under 1000 miles per hour and can strike from up to 11km away. It is primarily deployed via attack helicopters and drones.

Sales of Hellfire missiles have been approved to at least 30 countries, many of which are in the Middle East, including Israel. The British Ministry of Defense confirmed using Hellfire missile in Afghanistan.

While traditionally designed as an air to ground missile, Israel has used Hellfire missiles to destroy a civilian plane that entered its airspace from Lebanon in 2001 and an Iranian drone that entered from Syria in 2018.

In addition to its initial use against armored vehicles, the missile and its variants have been popular for use in assassinating “high value targets.” Wikipedia has a list of several of these individuals assassinated will hellfire missiles (which appear to all be muslims), including American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki who was assassinated in Yemen by the US.

There is a special variant of the Hellfire missile with no explosive warhead nicknamed the Ninja Missile or Flying Ginsu. This variant, called the R9X, has one meter long concealed blades that are deployed just before impact to shred its victims.

In a gruesome video posted online on November 9, at least one individual outside of Al-Shifa hospital is sliced apart by what is speculated to be an R9X missile. The projectile, which reportedly targeted a car, bounces around a courtyard area where many people are moving about or in large tents. There is no explosion. A camera moves around the scene in response to the impact and eventually settles on the victim, screaming for help, surrounded by blood and body parts.

It is probably the most gruesome video I have seen of the genocide in Gaza. I have tried to be very careful in what I am viewing to not traumatize myself. A privilege that I know Gazans do not have.

As gruesome as this one scene is, most of the other bombs are worse. This bomb kills only if it strikes you directly, or on ricochet. Explosive bombs will kill you in a direct strike or from a distance, will blow you apart, will incinerate you, can kill you with bomb shrapnel or shrapnel from exploding objects. Explosive bombs can collapse buildings down upon you. Israel has also used white phosphorous bombs in Gaza. White phosphorous burns 1400 degrees Fahrenheit and will continue to burn as long as it is exposed to air. It will burn human flesh down to the bone and fragments or remnants must be removed or will risk reigniting.

Israel has dropped more bombs and missiles on Gaza, an area the size of Philadelphia, than the United States dropped on the entirety of Afghanistan in any one month period during the height of the US war in Afghanistan. They have admitted to bombing over 12,000 targets and Euro-med Human Rights Monitor estimates the bombings have delivered over 25,000 tons of explosives and have contravened several international laws of war.

War is terror. Ceasefire NOW.