Four Lebanese children wounded by Israel cluster bomb left from 2006 war

Thursday April 24, 2008 23:50 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The official Lebanese newsy agency reported on Friday that an cluster bomb dropped by Israel during the 2006 war, exploded near a group of children in south Lebanon and wounded four of them.

The incident took place in a village in southern Lebanon as the four children, ages 10 -15, found a suspicious device while playing and carried it before it went off.

Israel dropped nearly four million cluster bombs on Lebanon during the 2006 war and nearly one million bombs did not explode and remained a threat endangering civilians.

Cluster bombs are considered an 'illegal weapon' under international law, as they inevitably harm civilians. The bombs are actually made up of hundreds of 'bomblets', which break apart on impact, spreading bomblets which explode over an area of several kilometers. Despite the fact that the weapon is banned, the Israeli military has called the use of these bombs a "concrete military necessity" in the invasion of Lebanon.

After the war, Lebanese officials and international human rights groups and heads of state have accused Israel of engaging in war crimes during the state's invasion of Lebanon, including the use of banned weapons such as cluster bombs.

 Over 1200 Lebanese people were killed during the month-long Israeli invasion, less than 200 of whom were actually engaged in fighting. That means that approximately 85% of the Lebanese casualties were civilians. In contrast, 159 Israelis were killed by Lebanese fighters during the invasion, 40 of whom were civilians. That means that approximately 25% of the Israelis killed were civilians.

During the war, the Israeli military used so much force against the Lebanese people that the well-equipped Israeli military began to run out of weaponry, and appealed to its ally, the USA, for more.

The US government quickly shipped over thousands more cluster bombs, which were immediately used by the Israeli military in Lebanon. The US State Department later came out with a statement that the cluster bombs sent by the US to Israel were likely misused to target civilians.

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