The New York Times published a visual investigation Monday based on satellite imagery, weapons analysis and video footage from Qeshm Island. The investigation found that the US dropped a Mark 84 bomb — a 2,000-pound conventional munition — on a family home on July 29. Iranian officials confirmed the deaths: a husband, a wife and their two-year-old son. The crater and munitions fragments confirmed the weapon. The Times found no evidence of military facilities near the target site. US Central Command said it was 'looking into reports of civilian casualties.'

DiploPolis named them on July 30. We wrote: 'A couple and their two-year-old child were killed when a US missile struck a residential building on Qeshm island. CENTCOM called it successful.' We did not know then what the NYT confirmed Monday: the weapon used was a Mark 84. It weighs 2,000 pounds. It was used on a home containing a family.

Weapons experts who examined the satellite imagery determined the bomb had been fitted with a Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kit — a device that converts an unguided bomb into one guided by GPS. A Mark 84 fitted with a JDAM guidance kit is precision-guided. The precision guided it to a home. According to a US Army office that manages ammunition for the Pentagon, bombs of this size are typically meant for targets such as buildings, rail yards and transportation routes. The home on Qeshm is confirmed as the building that was targeted. CENTCOM is reviewing it.

On the same Friday that the NYT's visual journalists were verifying munitions fragments in satellite imagery, Trump confirmed on camera at Camp David that the US campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court was specifically intended to defend Netanyahu from prosecution. He said: 'There's no information that they're after me. He's trying to defend Bibi and various other people.' Rubio told the cabinet that five countries had announced plans to quit the court since the US campaign launched. The ICC's chief prosecutor has been removed. The campaign, in Trump's own words, is for Netanyahu.

The ICC exists to investigate exactly what the NYT documented. Article 51 of the Geneva Protocols prohibits attacks which cannot distinguish between civilian objects and military targets. The Times found no military targets near the Qeshm home. The ICJ found in January 2024 that it was plausible that acts of genocide were being committed in Gaza. These are not abstract legal propositions. They are the institutional framework built specifically for situations in which a state drops a 2,000-pound bomb on a family home and then says it is looking into whether civilians were harmed.

The court that would examine the Mark 84 crater on Qeshm is being disassembled. Its prosecutor has been removed. Five countries are leaving it under American encouragement. The country that dropped the bomb is the country dismantling the court. Trump confirmed the purpose: to defend the ally. The ally's military and America's military launched the war together on February 28. The bomb on Qeshm was part of the war. The court that would be asked about the bomb on Qeshm is being taken apart. The sequence is not coincidental. It is structural.

This is impunity described from the inside. Not claimed, not inferred — stated. Trump said the ICC campaign is for Netanyahu. Netanyahu's government and Trump's government launched the war together. The NYT found a 2,000-pound bomb in the crater where a family home used to be. The Times found no military facilities near the site. CENTCOM said it is looking into civilian casualties. No institution exists with the authority to compel a different answer. Five countries are in the process of ensuring that no such institution will exist in the near future. Rubio said it would be dismantled brick by brick. The bricks are coming down.

The couple on Qeshm are dead. Their two-year-old is dead. The NYT confirmed the bomb and found no military target near the home. Trump confirmed the court's purpose. CENTCOM is looking into it. That sentence — looking into it — is what happens when the court that says otherwise is being deliberately dismantled.