An Al Jazeera investigation has alleged that Israel used internationally banned thermal and thermobaric weapons in Gaza, leaving thousands of Palestinians effectively “evaporated” in the blasts.
According to the Arabic programme The Rest of the Story, Gaza’s civil defence teams have documented more than 2,800 cases since October 2023 in which people simply disappeared during Israeli strikes. In many instances, rescuers say there were no intact bodies left — only fragments of flesh, traces of blood, or ash.
Experts and testimonies cited in the report suggest that conventional explosives alone do not explain the scale of destruction.
The investigation attributes the alleged vaporisation of victims to thermal and thermobaric weapons — also known as vacuum or aerosol bombs — which can generate temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius (6,332 degrees Fahrenheit).
For comparison, water boils at just 100 degrees Celsius. Much of the intense heat from such weapons is produced by tritonal, a mixture of TNT and aluminium powder commonly used in US-made bombs.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence, said rescue teams compare the number of residents believed to be inside a building with the bodies recovered.
“If a family tells us there were five people inside and we recover only three intact bodies, we classify the other two as ‘evaporated’ after a thorough search finds nothing but biological traces — blood spray on walls or small fragments,” he said.
Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said the phenomenon is scientifically possible. “When a human body is exposed to extremely high temperatures, it can vaporise and turn to ash,” he explained.
