The Israeli military has used widely banned cluster munitions in its recent 13-month war on Lebanon last year, The Guardian reported on 19 November, citing photos of munition remnants found in the south of the country.
The British paper commissioned six different arms experts to view the photos, which appear to show the remnants of two different types of Israeli cluster munitions, the 155mm M999 Barak Eitan cluster munition and 227mm Ra’am Eitan guided missiles.
The M999 Barak Eitan releases nine submunitions, which explode into 1,200 tungsten shards, while Ra’am Eitan-guided missiles each hold 64 bomblets.
The cluster munitions were found in three locations in southern Lebanon, where Israeli bombing has been most deadly: the forested valleys of Wadi Zibqin, Wadi Barghouz, and Wadi Deir Siryan.
Cluster munitions are container bombs that release many smaller submunitions, or “bomblets,” over an area several hundred meters wide, killing anyone within the range.
However, up to 40 percent of the bomblets fail to explode, killing and maiming civilians accidentally encountering them for years or even decades after a war is over.
As a result, 124 nations have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which forbids their use, production, and transfer. Israel is not a signatory to the convention.
“We believe the use of cluster munitions is always in conflict with a military’s duty to respect international humanitarian law because of their indiscriminate nature at the time of use and afterwards,” stated Tamar Gabelnick, the director of the Cluster Munition Coalition.
During the 2006 June war, Israel dropped four million cluster bombs on Lebanon in the final days before a ceasefire was reached. An estimated one million unexploded bomblets remained, killing 400 people since that time.
“Cluster munitions are banned internationally for a reason. They are inherently indiscriminate, and there is no way to employ them lawfully or responsibly, and civilians bear the brunt of the risk as these weapons stay deadly for decades to come,” said Brian Castner, the head of crisis research at Amnesty International.
During its war on Lebanon that began in October 2023, Israel has killed almost 4,000 people.
Israel continues to carry out near-daily strikes, in particular in Lebanon’s south, killing both civilians and Hezbollah members.
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