Israel refuses to help the search for the million cluster bombs it dropped on Lebanon
'What we did was crazy and brutal'
by Billy Briggs, Scotland on Sunday 20 January, 2008
"thousands of [Israeli] cluster bombs littered like some sadistic plague upon the land. They lay on roads, in gardens, in fields, on roofs, in doorways, inside offices and shops, in homes, in children's bedrooms and in graveyards; even the foliage of plants and trees contained hundreds of the devices, a deadly, hidden harvest waiting to be reaped."
The 2006 Lebanon war, known locally as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War, was a 34-day battle between, primarily, Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli Defence Force...Nearly one million Lebanese were displaced from their homes...
- The UN estimates that during the conflict, Israel dropped four million bombs. During the last 48 hours of the war alone, around a million cluster bombs are thought to have been dropped on southern Lebanon, rendering huge swathes of land uninhabitable
- thousands of unexploded cluster bombs littered like some sadistic plague upon the land. They lay on roads, in gardens, in fields, on roofs, in doorways, inside offices and shops, in homes, in children's bedrooms and in graveyards; even the foliage of plants and trees contained hundreds of the devices, a deadly, hidden harvest waiting to be reaped.
- In the first four months following the ceasefire, there were 209 casualties from these bombs – more than one person injured every day. Since then hundreds more – including many children – have been either killed or maimed for life by cluster munitions.
- The village of Yohmor, home to 5,500 people. When the July War ended, MAG inspected the damage. It found that of the village's 600 homes, 260 were severely damaged, including 40 that were completely razed to the ground. Nearly half the population was left homeless.
- Most of the roads were damaged and the surrounding area – much of it olive groves up to 500 years old and grazing land vital to the local economy – was blanketed with cluster bombs...The area is famous for its olive oil – but 33,000 trees are now out of bounds and two years' worth of the crop has been lost already.
- The clean-up operation seems a nigh-on impossible task, but...effectiveness would soar if Israel was willing to provide information on where the bombs were dropped and the number of land-mines and cluster bombs it used during the war. Until it does, Lebanon will never be completely bomb-free.
Haaretz, recently quoted an unidentified military leader in the Israeli air force as saying his unit dropped 1.2 million bombs during the July War. "What we did was crazy and brutal," he told the paper.
Israel has refused to participate in the Oslo Process which aims to endorse an international treaty banning cluster bombs which "cause unacceptable and indiscriminate harm to civilians".
Ran Gidor, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in London, says cluster bombs...were used solely on military targets. "We have passed information to the UN with regards to cluster bombs...We have not identified exact locations, however, as this would expose our intelligence."