According to CNN’s analysis of video from the scene and a review conducted by explosive weapons experts, the “tail of a small-diameter American-made bomb” was a GBU-39, a precision-guided sliding bomb, weighing 110 kilograms.
According to the American news network, it has identified geolocation videos showing tents engulfed in flames following the raid on the internally displaced persons camp known as “Kuwait Peace Camp 1.”
In a video shared on social media, which CNN geo-referenced to the same scene by matching details including the camp entrance sign and tiles on the ground, the tail of a US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bomb is visible. “, according to four explosive weapons experts who reviewed the video for CNN.
At least 45 people were killed and more than 200 others were injured after a fire broke out following the Israeli raid on the outskirts of the city of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza and Palestinian paramedics.
Footage obtained by CNN showed large areas of the camp in Rafah engulfed in flames, with dozens of men, women and children frantically trying to find cover from the night attack. Burnt bodies, including those of children, were seen as rescuers pulled them from under the rubble.
American-made GBU-39 bomb
Explosive weapons expert Chris Cobb Smith told CNN on Tuesday that the GBU-39 bomb, manufactured by Boeing, is a high-precision munition “designed to attack targets of strategic importance” and results in low collateral damage.
However, Cobb Smith, also a former British Army artillery officer, said: “The use of any ammunition, even of this size, will always present risks in a densely populated area.”
Trevor Ball, a former senior member of the US Army’s explosive ordnance disposal team who also identified the fragment as being from a GBU-39 bomb, explained to CNN how he arrived at his conclusion.
“The warhead portion of the munition is distinct, and the guidance and wing section are very unique compared to other munitions,” he said. “The guidance and wing portions of munitions are often the remains left behind even after the munition explodes. I saw the rear operating section and immediately knew it was a variant of the GBU-39.” .
Paul also concluded that although there was a variant of the GBU-39 bomb known as the Focused Lethal Munition (FLM) which had a larger explosive payload but was designed to cause less collateral damage, this was not the variant used in this case.
He added, “The concentrated lethal munition contains a warhead composed of carbon fiber and filled with tungsten powder. Test images of the concentrated lethal munition showed objects in the test coated with tungsten dust, which does not exist.” [في فيديو من المشهد]“.
He continued, “The serial numbers on the munitions remnants also matched those of a California-based GBU-39 parts manufacturer – indicating further evidence that the bombs were manufactured in the United States.”
Two additional explosive weapons experts, Richard Weir, a senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, and Chris Lincoln Jones, a former British Army artillery officer and weapons and targeting expert, identified the fragment as part of a US-made GBU-39 bomb. When reviewing the video for CNN, though, they were unable to comment on the alternative used.
In response to a request for comment on the munitions used in the Rafah raid, at a press conference on Tuesday, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters: “I don’t know what type of munitions were used in that airstrike. I have to refer you to the Israelis to talk about that.”
Main supplier of weapons
The United States has long been the largest arms supplier to Israel, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and that support has continued despite mounting political pressure on the Biden administration over the Gaza offensive.
Last month, Biden signed a foreign aid bill that includes $26 billion for the conflict between Israel and Hamas — including $15 billion in Israeli military aid, $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, and $2.4 billion for regional U.S. military operations.
CNN’s identification of the munitions is consistent with a claim by IDF spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari in a press conference about the tragedy on Tuesday.
The raid, which he said targeted senior Hamas leaders, used two munitions with small warheads containing 17 kilograms of explosives, Hagari told reporters, adding that these bombs were “the smallest munitions that our aircraft can use.”
It is noteworthy that the payload of the conventional warhead in the GBU-39 bomb is 17 kilograms.
Hagari said that the deadly fire that occurred after the raid was not caused solely by the weapons used by the Israeli army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deadly air strike in Rafah was a “tragic mistake,” but said Israel pledged to continue its operation despite international outrage and a US warning not to go ahead.
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