US officials won’t admit American-made bombs used in Rafah tent camp strike that killed 45

Senior White House officials are refusing to say whether American-made bombs were used in a deadly airstrike in Gaza this week — despite an investigation which appeared to confirm remnants of US munitions at the scene.

An Israeli airstrike on a tent camp for the displaced in Rafah killed 45 people on Sunday including women and children, and left at least 200 injured, the Gaza health ministry reported.

The attack on the city, where millions of Palestinians have taken refuge during the Israel-Hamas war, caused international outrage. But the US said that the deadly strike did not constitute a breach of the “red line” set by President Joe Biden that would cause him to reconsider his support for Israel.

Analysis published by CNN on Wednesday revealed video footage from the scene of the Rafah strike that showed fragments of munitions with printed serial numbers. It appeared to be a GBU-39, a small-diameter bomb made by Boeing, according to the report.

Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosives expert, told CNN that he had seen a “distinct” piece of wreckage identifiable as a warhead section and an “extremely unique” part which he called the “guidance and wing section” of the bomb.

“I saw the tail actuation section and instantly knew it was one of the SDB/GBU-39 variants,” Mr Ball said. The US is Israel’s largest arms supplier.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demurred when asked whether US weapons were used in the Rafah tent camp strike.

“We have to see what the investigation shows,” he said, while on a trip to Moldova.

Mr Blinken described the attack as “horrific” but added that, even if it is assumed that US-made weapons were used, it is evidence that it was a “limited, focused, targeted” attack meant “to