On the night of 26 May, an Israeli airstrike hit the neighbourhood of Tel al Sultan in Rafah.

At least 45 people were killed as structures in an area housing displaced Palestinians were set alight, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

Location of the strike

The affected area is less than 200 metres from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s compound in the north of Rafah.

Geolocated footage and satellite imagery shows the strike destroyed buildings immediately adjacent to a sign identifying Kuwaiti Al-Salam Camp 1.

While it is unclear whether the buildings are part of the camp, Kuwaiti Al-Salam Camp 1 is known to house Palestinians displaced by the ongoing conflict.

Over much of the conflict, the surrounding area has been occupied by tents and sheds housing displaced people. In recent weeks, the number of these structures has decreased as Palestinians fled in advance of Israel‘s ground offensive in Rafah.

Verifying footage

To build a picture of what happened immediately after the strike, Sky News verified numerous videos and photographs captured by those present.

A sign and other distinctive features visible in footage recorded in the immediate aftermath allowed it to be matched to a daytime recording from the same scene.

Landmarks visible in the daylight made it possible to determine the exact location of the strike, and verify pieces of footage recorded at night in the same place.

The footage ultimately verified by Sky News shows numerous bodies being pulled from the wreckage of destroyed buildings. In one video, a man can be seen carrying the body of a decapitated child.

Satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs PBC on 27 May shows four buildings were destroyed in this strike.

The Israeli account

In a statement given on 28 May, a senior Israeli military official claimed the deaths of civilians were the result of an attempt to kill two senior members of Hamas, and that the site is close to an area used to launch rockets.

According to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, two 17kg (37lb) munitions were used. Claiming that much of the destruction was caused by a subsequent fire that could not have been solely ignited by munitions of this size, Hagari stated that this was being investigated.

The weaponry used in this strike

Footage filmed by Palestinian journalist Alamuddin Sadiq at the scene of the strike appears to indicate which specific munition was used.

Recorded the day after the strike, the fragments resemble the tail section of a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB).

According to Rahul Udoshi, a weapons specialist at the defence intelligence company Janes, the fragment “appears to be tail section of GBU-39 SDB (of Israeli Air Force stock).” Noting the similarity, Udoshi pointed out “the screw and cut section next to that”, which he described as an “exact match”.

Reviewing the same image, Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British army artillery officer and director of Chiron Resources, also concluded that it matched a GBU-39 SDB, describing the munition as “an advanced, state-of-the-art weapon”.

According to Sipri Arms Transfers Database, Israel received 1,000 of these munitions from the US as recently as 2023. Bloomberg, reporting at the time, states that this delivery was accelerated following the 7 October Hamas attack.

Aerial footage

During his statement, Rear Admiral Hagari shared a video showing the strike filmed from above. Highlighting the specific buildings that were targeted, the video shows that out of the four destroyed, these were the second furthest east and the structure immediately to its west.

On the loss of innocent life, Hagari said “our aerial surveillance was filming prior to the strike in order to minimise civilian harm”.

In the footage shared by the Israeli military, Sky News identified four people moving in the immediate vicinity of the targeted building in the seconds before it was hit.

Humanitarian zone

Prior to its ground offensive in Rafah, Israel produced a map marking an evacuation area and humanitarian zone.

The area targeted lies between these two zones, in the neighbourhood numbered by the Israeli government as 2372.

More than 20 people have been killed in Israeli tank shelling on a tent camp in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

It comes amid widespread outrage over Israel’s bombing two days earlier of another camp where at least 45 lives were lost.

On Tuesday, four tank shells hit a cluster of tents for displaced families in a designated humanitarian zone in al Mawasi, western Rafah, killing 21 people, emergency services told Reuters.

At least 12 of the victims were women, medical officials said.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it did not strike in the humanitarian area of al Mawasi.

Latest updates on Israel-Hamas war

Israel had launched an airstrike on the Tel al Sultan area of western Rafah on Sunday night that ignited a fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians. At least 45 people, around half of them women and children, were killed, according to local health officials.

The deadly bombing sparked global condemnation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mistake”.

The Israeli military on Tuesday claimed its initial investigation into the strike indicated the fire was caused by a secondary explosion.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, claimed Israel’s military fired two 17kg munitions that targeted two senior Hamas militants.

He claimed the munitions would have been too small to ignite a fire on their own, and that the military was looking into the possibility that weapons were stored in the area.

It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.

The fire triggered by the bombing also could have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the densely populated tent camp housing displaced people.

Israel’s closest allies have been among those who have strongly condemned the killings.

Nearly a million have been forced to flee Rafah since Israel launched an incursion there in early May. Most of the people had already been displaced by Israeli attacks.

They now seek refuge in squalid tent camps and other war-ravaged areas.

The US and other close allies of Israel have warned against a fully-fledged offensive in the city, with the Biden administration saying that would cross a red line and refusing to provide offensive arms for such an operation.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice – the UN’s top court – ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive – although Israel looks set to ignore the demand.

Israel claims it is carrying out limited operations in eastern Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border, although residents also reported heavy bombardment overnight in western parts of Rafah.

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Sayed al Masri, a Rafah resident, said many families had been forced to flee their homes and shelters, with most heading for the crowded area of al Mawasi, where giant tent camps have been set up on a barren coastline, or to Khan Younis, a southern city that suffered heavy damage during months of fighting.

Gaza’s health ministry said two medical facilities in Tel al Sultan were out of service because of intense bombing nearby.

Medical Aid for Palestinians, a charity operating throughout the territory, said the Tel al Sultan medical centre and the Indonesian Field Hospital were under lockdown, with medics, patients and displaced people trapped inside.

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Most of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer functioning. The Kuwait Hospital in Rafah shut down on Monday after a strike near its entrance killed two health workers.

A spokesperson for the World Health Organisation said the casualties from Sunday’s strike and fire “absolutely overwhelmed” field hospitals in the area, which were already running short on supplies to treat severe burns.

The Israeli offensive began after Hamas and other militants burst into southern Israel in a surprise attack on 7 October, killing around 1,200 people and abducting around 250 others. More than 100 were released during a ceasefire in November in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Israel responded to the attack with a huge air and land offensive that has killed at least 36,096 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced and United Nations officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

The Pope used a highly offensive word towards gay men as he reaffirmed his stance that they should not be priests, Italian media has reported.

Pope Francis is believed to have made the remark in a closed-door meeting with bishops, according to the country’s largest daily newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.

Both quoted the Pope as describing priesthood colleges as already too full of “frociaggine” – a highly offensive Italian slur.

The Vatican has not commented on the reports.

The incident is said to have happened on 20 May, as first reported by political gossip website Dagospia, when the Italian Bishops Conference held a private meeting with the Pope.

La Repubblica based its story on several unspecified sources, while Corriere cited unnamed bishops, who suggested the Pope, an Argentinian, might have not realised the Italian term is offensive.

“It’s all the fault of some bishop who broke his mandate of silence to report the gaffe that occurred last week,” reported Il Messaggero, a national paper based in Rome.

According to the paper, the Pope’s comments came during an informal Q&A session at the annual bishops’ meeting which was attended by over 200 members of the clergy.

The Pope, 87, has been credited with leading the Roman Catholic Church into taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBT+ community.

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At the start of his papacy in 2013, he said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”

Last year, he allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, triggering significant conservative backlash.

But in 2018, he told Italian bishops to carefully vet priesthood applicants and reject anyone suspected of being gay.

Read more:
Pope makes first visit out of Rome after health scares
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In a 2005 document, during Benedict XVI’s papacy, the Vatican said the church could admit into the priesthood those who had overcome gay tendencies for at least three years.

The document said those with “deep-seated” gay tendencies and those who “support the so-called gay culture” should be barred.