An investigation by The New York Times shows that during the first six weeks of the Israeli aggression in Gaza, Israel used its “one of its biggest and most destructive bombs” in areas in the south of the strip which the military had indicated as safe for civilians, Al Jazeera reports.

“The findings reveal that 2,000-pound bombs posed a pervasive threat to civilians seeking safety across south Gaza,” read the report.

It added that bombs of that size are “almost never dropped by US forces in densely populated areas anymore,” according to ammunition experts.

Asked about the bombs’ use in southern Gaza, the Israeli army told The Times that Israel’s priority was to destroy Hamas and that “questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage,” the newspaper reported a spokesperson as saying.