Israel admits using cluster bombs

The recent testimonies of IDF officials come as the Israeli Chief of Staff, General Halutz, recently initiated probes into the use of such weapons. After a year-long enquiry, the appointed Military Advocate General, Avihai Mandelbit, has now cleared the airforce of the charge but stated that the artillery and rocket batteries did deploy cluster bombs into populated areas. However, the probe concluded that such use in civilian areas was “as an immediate defense response to rocket attacks by Hizbullah,” and a “military necessity” and so did not constitute a criminal violation of international law. The IDF Spokesman’s Office stated that “International law does not include a sweeping prohibition of the use of cluster bombs. The convention on conventional weaponry does not declare a prohibition on [phosphorous weapons], rather, on principles regulating the use of such weapons.”
While International Law does not forbid the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells per se, many legal experts maintain that their usage is covered within prohibitions against targeting of civilian populations and causing “excessive injury and unnecessary suffering.” According to Amnesty International, cluster munitions may be classed as such because they “present a high risk of violating the prohibition of indiscriminate attack, because of the wide area covered by the numerous bomblets released and the danger posed to all those, including civilians, who come into contact with the unexploded bomblets.”
Both UN findings and IDF admissions reveal that, as the final wrinkles of ceasefire were being ironed out on the ground, built-up areas across southern Lebanon were decimated by cluster munitions. UN Relief Coordinator, Jan Egland, stated at war’s end that “it is an outrage that we have 100 000 bombs among where children, women, shopkeepers and farmers are now going to tread.”
General Mandelbit’s conclusions also admitted the IDF fired phosphorus shells but deemed this legal under international law. In 2006, Israeli Cabinet Minister, Jacob Edery, admitted that “the IDF made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground.” While the location and type of targets were not specified, various hospital reports during the 2006 war indicated severe chemical burns from phosphorous shells suffered by civilians.
White phosphorous shells, often used to raze buildings, cause horrific burning when they come into contact with skin. Unless deprived of oxygen, the body will be in flames until the flesh is cremated to the bone. Prior to the 2006 war, it was most recently used in November 2004 by the US army in Fallujah, Iraq.
The International Red Cross considers both cluster munitions and phosphorus shells to be violations of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions and has called for their complete ban. General Mandelbit’s verdict however, will neither force lay-off nor any disciplinary charge on IDF personnel that ordered the use of either cluster bombs or phosphorus shells in residential areas.

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