A report has revealed that the Israeli regime used munitions made in the United States in its recent deadly strike on a tent camp in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, which left some 50 people dead.
Explosive weapons experts confirmed on Tuesday that the Israeli regime used US-made GBU-39 in its attack on a tent camp in a designated safe zone in Rafah. This conclusion came after reviewing a video shared on social media by CNN, where the tail of the small diameter bomb (SDB) was visible.
Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member, identified the fragment as being from a GBU-39. Richard Weir, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, and Chris Lincoln-Jones, a former British Army artillery officer and weapons and targeting expert, also confirmed the identification when reviewing the video.
Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British Army artillery officer, noted that the GBU-39 is a high-precision bomb “designed to attack strategically important point targets,” and using it in a densely populated area carries significant risks.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Stacey Gilbert, a senior US State Department official, resigned on Tuesday in protest against the war on Gaza and in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
On Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that dozens of people were killed and more than 200 others injured after a huge fire broke out following the Israeli military’s strike on a tented area for displaced people in Rafah. This attack sent shockwaves globally, prompting world leaders to call for the immediate implementation of a World Court ruling to halt the regime’s invasion of Gaza.
On Tuesday, the Israeli regime carried out another attack on a tented camp in Rafah, killing at least 21 displaced Palestinians. The regime’s tanks and armored vehicles also advanced further into the city center. Rafah, once designated as a “safe zone” by Israeli military forces, has become the last refuge for over half of Gaza’s population of more than 2.3 million, who have fled their homes to shelter from incessant attacks.
Over the past three weeks, the regime’s invasion of Rafah has displaced nearly a million Palestinians across a wide area, many of whom have been displaced multiple times.
Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7 last year after Palestinian resistance groups retaliated against intensified Israeli atrocities. Since then, the US has supplied Israel with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment and used its veto power against all UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Despite global condemnation, the US administration has maintained its support for Israel, with President Joe Biden’s administration indicating that the deadly strikes in Rafah did not cross a “red line” and would not alter Washington’s policy towards Tel Aviv. In press briefings on Tuesday, administration officials described the Israeli massacre in Rafah as “heartbreaking” but claimed that the assault was an airstrike, not a major ground operation.
The ongoing Israeli military campaign against Gaza has so far killed more than 36,000 people, most of them women and children, and injured 81,136 others.
