Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch
Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch
Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch
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H UMAN R I GHTS WATCH<br />
350 Fifth Avenue, 34 th Floor<br />
New York, NY 10118-3299<br />
www.hrw.org<br />
H U M A N<br />
R I G H T S<br />
W A T C H<br />
<strong>Flooding</strong> <strong>South</strong> <strong>Lebanon</strong><br />
Israel’s Use of Cluster Munitions in <strong>Lebanon</strong> in July and August 2006<br />
During its 34-day war with Hezbollah in July and August 2006, Israel rained an estimated 4 million cluster<br />
submunitions on south <strong>Lebanon</strong>, 90 percent in the last three days of the conflict. <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> <strong>Watch</strong>’s research<br />
has found that the Israel Defense Force’s use of cluster munitions was indiscriminate and disproportionate, in<br />
violation of international humanitarian law. By the start of 2008, the strikes, and especially the enduring legacy<br />
of up to 1 million unexploded submunitions left behind, had caused more than 190 civilian casualties. Remaining<br />
duds continue to threaten civilians.<br />
<strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> <strong>Watch</strong>’s researchers on the ground in <strong>Lebanon</strong> during and after the war found that many strikes<br />
landed in or near villages. Israel used both Vietnam war-era submunitions with high dud rates and newer,<br />
high-tech models that failed to perform as designed. Cluster duds have maimed and killed children who thought<br />
they were toys, civilians returning to their towns, and farmers working in their fields.<br />
Israel’s failure to mount credible, transparent investigations one and a half years after the end of the 2006 conflict<br />
reaffirms the need for an International Commission of Inquiry to investigate reports of violations of international<br />
humanitarian law, including possible war crimes.<br />
The lasting civilian impact of Israel’s use of cluster munitions in south <strong>Lebanon</strong> underlines the need for an international<br />
treaty to ban cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. Negotiations are underway—this<br />
report shows why they are urgent.<br />
Rusha Zayoun, 17, lost her leg to a<br />
cluster submunition launched in 2006<br />
by Israel on the village of Maaraki,<br />
<strong>Lebanon</strong>. The submunition, like many<br />
in <strong>Lebanon</strong>, failed to explode on<br />
impact, but detonated later, wounding<br />
her and her mother.<br />
© 2007 Stuart Freedman/Panos Pictures