Direct proof of use
The Mk 84/M-84 2,000-pound bomb is directly documented in Israeli use in the 2023 Israel-Hamas War through crater mapping and later public-health analysis of Gaza satellite imagery. A PLOS Global Public Health study combined New York Times and CNN crater datasets and identified 592 M-84 bomb craters in the Gaza Strip between October 7 and November 17, 2023.
Harvard's FXB Center summarized the same peer-reviewed study as showing that Israel air-dropped nearly 600 M-84 2,000-pound bombs in Gaza during the period studied. Associated Press reporting in December 2023 separately described experts using blast fragments, satellite images, and strike footage to assess U.S.-made bombs in the Israeli campaign, including 2,000-pound JDAM-class weapons.
Sources: PLOS Gaza M-84 crater study, Harvard FXB Gaza heavy-bombs release, AP Gaza bombing campaign analysis
Timeline
The clearest public dating comes from the October 7 to November 17, 2023 period covered by the PLOS study. The northern-Gaza crater map used by that study drew on CNN and Synthetaic imagery analysis from October 15 to November 6, while the southern-Gaza map drew on a New York Times investigation using November 16 and 17 satellite imagery.
On December 21 and 22, 2023, the public record widened through AP, New York Times, and CNN reporting on the scale of Israel's heavy-bomb use in Gaza. In October 2024, the PLOS article and Harvard FXB release converted those visual investigations into a geospatial hospital-proximity dataset and peer-reviewed summary of M-84 crater locations.
Sources: PLOS Gaza M-84 crater study, AP Gaza bombing campaign analysis, RAIC CNN crater-analysis note, Harvard FXB Gaza heavy-bombs release
Use in Gaza
The documented role was heavy air-delivered strike use by Israel in the Gaza Strip, not transfer to another local side or capture by Hamas and Gaza-based armed groups. The publicly available evidence identifies bomb detonations through crater size and location rather than a complete sortie-by-sortie weapons release record.
The PLOS article treated M-84 bombs as 2,000-pound air-dropped explosive munitions and noted that subsequent technology can turn them into guided weapons. For this catalog entry, the evidence supports Mk 84/M-84-class bomb-body use in Gaza; it does not establish from crater data alone whether each bomb was released as an unguided weapon or as part of a guided JDAM, Paveway, or other kit configuration.
The mapped use was geographically broad. PLOS reported 415 identified craters from CNN's northern-Gaza dataset and 177 from the New York Times southern-Gaza dataset, for a combined 592 georeferenced M-84 craters. The study also reported that 197 of those craters were within 800 meters of hospitals and 28 were within 360 meters, reflecting how the mapped strikes intersected with Gaza's urban hospital geography.
Sources: PLOS Gaza M-84 crater study, Harvard FXB Gaza heavy-bombs release, RAIC CNN crater-analysis note
