An Israeli military commander has revealed that in the last ten days of the patently unjust war against Lebanon, the Israeli army dropped over 1.2 million cluster bombs in southern Lebanon. Entire towns were covered with these lethal devices, which look innocuous or even sometimes like toys to children but can maim and kill when touched or moved.

A United Nations report stated that 90% of the Israeli cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the war, just on the eve of the ceasefire. A UN team that had been clearing Lebanon of land mines laid by Israeli soldiers when they retreated from Lebanon 20 years ago had to shift focus to dismantling cluster bombs. The bombs are the size of a can of soda and sometimes look like toys. When fired at close range, almost half of the bombs lie lethally dormant, waiting to be activated. These small unexploded and indiscriminating bombs landed in olive and citrus trees, fields and gardens; littered playgrounds, highways, homes, and streets; rattled around on roof tops and nestled into wood piles waiting to explode in civilians’ hands.

Cluster bombs are gruesomely popular when warring states want to punish the civilian population. NATO forces used cluster bombs in Serbia. They were extensively used by the US during the Vietnam War, and also in Afghanistan and Iraq. The UK also uses cluster bombs in Iraq. A recent US Senate vote defeated an amendment to ban the use of cluster bombs near populated civilian areas, allowing the US a free hand to continue supplying Israel with these maiming bombs and using them on its own.

The Israeli commander went on to explain that because of the inability to strike individual targets precisely, units would flood the battlefield with munitions. According to independent monitors, Israeli cluster bombs killed 83 Lebanese in the month following the 14 August ceasefire. The casualty figures are expected to rise sharply in the next month as villagers begin the harvest, picking olives from trees whose leaves and branches hide bombs that explode with the smallest motion.

This shows yet again the wantonly cruel and inhuman nature of the US imperialists and the Zionist regime of Israel supported by it. It is only fitting that these war criminals be brought to trial and made to pay for their heinous crimes against humanity.