US munitions used in Israel's barbaric Rafah air strike: report

An analysis of video footage and a review by explosive weapons experts have revealed that munitions manufactured in the US were used in a deadly Israeli air strike Sunday on a displacement camp in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.

CNN footage on Wednesday showed large areas of the camp engulfed in flames, as numerous civilians, including men, women and children, desperately sought shelter from the attack.

Rescuers were seen retrieving charred bodies, including children, from the debris.

Videos that show tents engulfed in flames following the strike on the "Kuwait Peace Camp 1" were geolocated.

In one video on social media, which was confirmed to be the same location by matching details such as the camp's entrance sign and ground tiles, the tail of a US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bomb (SDB) is visible, according to four experts who reviewed the footage.

Manufactured by Boeing, the GBU-39 is a high-precision munition "designed to attack strategically important point targets," while causing low collateral damage, explosive weapons expert and former British Army artillery officer Chris Cobb-Smith told CNN.

Cobb-Smith, however, noted that using any munition in a densely populated area always carries risks.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday fell short of denying the report, but said he could not verify whether Israel used US-supplied weapons in the attack.

Blinken told reporters during a visit to Moldova that what weapons were used and how they were used would have to be the object of an investigation into the attack.

Israel's biggest supplier

Israeli tanks have been advancing deeper into Rafah for the first time in Israel’s nearly eight-month war on Gaza, marking a new phase in its onslaught.

The air strike on Sunday killed at least 45 people and wounded nearly 250, said the Gaza-based Government Media Office.

The strike occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan.

Under repeated questioning by reporters, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday that Washington "certainly condemns the loss of life" in the attack on Rafah, but maintained that Israel is continuing to carry out an investigation that he said would shed light on the attack.

"We don't want to see a single more innocent life taken, and I take a little offence at the question. No civilian casualties are the right number of civilian casualties," Kirby said after being asked how many "charred bodies" US President Joe Biden would have to see a reference to images that emerged in the wake of the strike before he considers changes to US policy.

The US has traditionally been Israel's biggest supplier of arms.

Last month, Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package including $26 billion for Israel.

His administration notified Congress on May 14 about a new more than $1 billion arms package including $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds that it plans to deliver to Israel, according to media reports.