TEL AVIV [MENL] -- The Israel Air Force has been using an advanced U.S.-origin airborne munitions in counter-insurgency missions in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officers said the air force has been using the Joint Direct Attack Munition to strike insurgency strongholds in the Gaza Strip. They said the air force managed to direct JDAMs to destroy targets in urban areas.

On Dec. 17, 2004, an air force jet released a JDAM over the southern Gaza City of Rafah. Officers said the bomb was meant to destroy a weapons tunnel.

Air force commander Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy told a conference on air urban warfare that the JDAM was guided to its target at an angle of 80 degrees. Shkedy told the conference on May 31 that the JDAM created enough damage and diversion to enable ground forces to destroy the target.