Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

The Impact of Israel’s Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July
and August 2006
During Human Rights Watch’s visits to south Lebanon in August, September, and
October 2006, researchers saw dozens of towns hit by cluster munitions and
hundreds of submunition duds littering backyards and fields. 87 The teams also
witnessed UN, nongovernmental, and Lebanese Army deminers struggling to cope
with a problem of unprecedented magnitude. Israel had hit only the peripheries of
some towns with cluster munitions but had elsewhere blanketed built-up areas. As
civilians returned home immediately after the ceasefire, they found their property
had become de facto minefields. Villagers and deminers discovered unexploded
cluster duds inside houses, in the streets, in gardens, on roofs, on patios, and
hanging from trees and fences. In Tebnine, a hospital had been struck, and the
hundreds of duds strewn across the entryway trapped doctors and patients inside
(see Case Study below). MACC SL reported, on January 15, 2008, 192 civilian
casualties, including 20 killed and 172 wounded. 88 Exploding duds were still injuring
civilians in the south in December 2007.
A senior Human Rights Watch military analyst who arrived in south Lebanon
immediately after the ceasefire had surveyed cluster munitions on the ground in
both Kosovo and Iraq. The sheer number and density of dud fields in urban areas
dwarfed anything he had ever seen before.
The IDF’s cluster munition strikes were spread over an area of approximately 1,400
square kilometers north and south of the Litani river, an area comparable in size to
the US state of Rhode Island (1,214 sq km). Of the 1,400 square kilometers affected
by the cluster munitions, an aggregate area of 38.7 square kilometers, including 4.3
square kilometers of urban areas, 20 square kilometers of agricultural land, and 4
square kilometers of woodland, has been confirmed by deminers as directly
87 Human Rights Watch has separately reported on violations of international humanitarian law by both Israel and Hezbollah
during the 2006 conflict. See Human Rights Watch, Why They Died, and Human Rights Watch, Civilians under Assault.
88 MACC SL Casualty List. The Landmines Resource Center reported, on January 2, 2008, 220 civilian injuries and 19 deaths
from cluster munition duds. LMRC Casualty List.
Flooding South Lebanon 36