Israeli security forces walk near Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba
New Delhi:
Israel has alleged that Iran fired a missile with cluster bomb warhead on a civilian area. The missile started releasing the bomblets at an altitude of 23,000 feet (7 km). The Iranian missile scattered at least 20 bomblets across a radius of 8 km.
Here are 5 points about cluster munitions
- One of the small munitions struck a home in the central Israeli town of Azor, causing some damage, Times of Israel reported. There were no reports of casualties from the bomb.
- Cluster bombs are controversial because they indiscriminately scatter submunitions, some of which can fail to explode and kill or injure long after a conflict ends.
- Iran and Israel declined to join a 2008 international ban on the production, stockpiling, transfer and use of cluster bombs that has been signed by 111 countries and 12 other entities.
- After extensive debate, the US in 2023 supplied Ukraine with cluster munitions for use against Russian forces. Kyiv says Russian troops have also fired cluster munitions.
- "They are egregious weapons with their wide-area destruction, especially if used in a civilian populated area and could add to the unexploded ordnance left over from conflicts," Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group, told news agency Reuters.
