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Israel
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The State of Israel has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In 2009, Israel stated that while it “shares the views of those states wishing to alleviate the humanitarian concerns that may be associated with the use of cluster munitions,” it “believes that this could be best achieved within the framework of the CCW [Convention on Conventional Weapons].” Israel said that it “welcomes and supports the ongoing negotiations” in the CCW “aimed at urgently addressing the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions. In Israel’s view, the CCW is the appropriate forum to negotiate such matters, one that has traditionally enjoyed the membership and expertise of relevant states.”[1]
Israel continued to engage actively in CCW deliberations on cluster munitions in 2009 and 2010. During the April 2010 session, in response to comments from Convention on Cluster Munitions supporters, Israel said that it was not its intention to see a CCW instrument be an interim transition to a total ban on cluster munitions.[2]
Israel did not participate at all in the diplomatic Oslo Process to develop and negotiate the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2007 and 2008.[3] It did not attend any of the international or regional diplomatic conferences related to the convention in 2009 or 2010 through July.
Israel had long been resistant to any new international restrictions or prohibitions on cluster munitions. From 2000, when the CCW first began discussing cluster munitions, until mid-2008, Israel opposed any new rules or regulations for states on the use of cluster munitions, insisting that existing international law was sufficient. In justifying its use of cluster munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006, Israel stressed that it did so in conformity with international humanitarian law. It said, “Both international law and accepted practice do not prohibit the use of…‘cluster bombs.’ Consequently, the main issue…should be the method of their use, rather than their legality.”[4]
Israel is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. While Israel is party to CCW, it has not ratified Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
Use
Israel used cluster munitions in 1973 in Syria against non-state armed group training camps near Damascus, in 1978 in south Lebanon, in 1982 in Lebanon against Syrian forces and non-state armed groups, and in 2006 in south Lebanon against Hezbollah.[5]
Israel fired cluster munitions containing some 4 million submunitions into south Lebanon in 2006. According to the UN, 90% of the cluster munitions were fired in the last 72 hours of the conflict.[6] A spokesperson for the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre for Southern Lebanon (MACC SL) said Israel’s use of cluster munitions “was unprecedented and one of the worst, if not the worst, use of submunitions in history.”[7] In January 2008, the Winograd Commission of inquiry appointed by the Israeli government reported that there was a lack of clarity regarding the acceptable or appropriate use of these weapons.[8]
During the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Hezbollah fired over 100 Chinese made Type-81 122mm cluster munitions rockets into northern Israel.[9] Israel has said that it has cleared all known UXO from these cluster munition attacks.[10]
Production, transfer, and stockpiling
Israel has been a major producer and exporter of cluster munitions, primarily artillery projectiles and rockets containing the M85 dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunition equipped with a back-up pyrotechnic self-destruct fuze. Israel Military Industries (IMI) produces, license-produces, and exports cluster munitions including artillery projectiles (105mm, 122mm, 130mm, 152mm, 155mm, 175mm, and 203mm), mortar bombs (120mm), and rockets (EXTRA, GRADLAR, and LAR-160).[11]
IMI has reportedly produced over 60 million M85 DPICM submunitions.[12] IMI concluded licensing agreements in 2004 with companies in India (Indian Ordnance Factories) and the United States (Alliant Techsystems) to produce DPICM. Companies in Argentina (CITEFA), Germany (Rheinmetall), Romania (Romtechnica), Switzerland (RAUG), and Turkey (MKEK and Rocketsan) have also assembled or produced these submunitions under license.[13]
Israel transferred four GRADLAR 122mm/160mm rocket launcher units to Georgia in 2007. Georgia has acknowledged using the launchers with 160mm Mk.-4 rockets, each containing 104 M85 DPICM submunitions, during its August 2008 conflict with Russia.[14] Cluster munitions of Israeli origin have been reported in the stockpiles of Colombia.[15]
Israel has also produced several types of air-dropped cluster munitions. The Rafael Corporation is credited with producing the ATAP-300, ATAP-500, ATAP-1000 RAM, TAL-1, and TAL-2 cluster bombs, as well as the BARAD Helicopter Submunition Dispenser.[16]
Israel has imported cluster munitions from the US, including M26 rockets (each with 644 submunitions) for its Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers and 155mm M483A1 projectiles (each with 88 submunitions), both used in south Lebanon in 2006. The US has also supplied Rockeye cluster bombs (with 202 bomblets each) and CBU-58B cluster bombs (with 650 bomblets each).[17]
The size and composition of Israel’s current stockpile of cluster munitions is not known. Additionally, it captured and possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the ammunition for these weapons includes versions with submunition payloads.[18]
Cluster Munition Remnants
It is not known whether Israel remains affected by cluster munition remnants. According to the commander of the bomb squad of the National Police, all known strike locations of cluster munitions fired into Israel from Lebanon by Hezbollah in 2006 were cleared of any remnants found at the time. However, no systematic survey was conducted, nor was there any attempt to identify strikes that may have landed in the desert.[19] Survivor Corps has claimed that Ktura Valley in Arava is contaminated by unexploded submunitions.[20]
[1] Letter from Rodica Radian-Gordon, Director, Arms Control Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Human Rights Watch (HRW), 23 February 2009.
[2] Statement of Israel, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on cluster munitions, Geneva, 15 April 2010. Notes by AOAV.
[3] For details on Israel’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see HRW and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 212–215.
[4] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Behind the Headlines: Legal and operational aspects of the use of cluster bombs,” 5 September 2006, www.mfa.gov.il.
[5] HRW, “Cluster Munition Information Chart,” April 2009, www.hrw.org. During the 1978 and 1982 Lebanon conflicts, the US placed restrictions on the use of its cluster munitions by Israel. In response to Israel’s use of cluster munitions in 1982 and the civilian casualties that they caused, the US issued a moratorium on the transfer of cluster munitions to Israel. The moratorium was lifted in 1988. HRW, “Flooding South Lebanon: Israel’s Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006,” Vol. 20, No.2(E), February 2008, p. 26.
[6] For details on Israel’s use of cluster munitions in Lebanon and its impact, see HRW, “Flooding South Lebanon: Israel’s Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006,” Vol. 20, No.2(E), February 2008, p. 26; and, Landmine Action, “Foreseeable harm: the use and impact of cluster munitions in Lebanon: 2006,” October 2006, www.landmineaction.org.
[7] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Lebanon: Deminers find new cluster bomb sites without Israeli data,” IRIN, 22 January 2008, quoting Dalya Farran, Spokesperson, MACC SL, www.reliefweb.int.
[8] Landmine Action, “Cluster Munitions: A survey of legal responses,” 2008, pp. 18–26, www.landmineaction.org.
[9] HRW, “Civilians Under Assault: Hezbollah’s Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War,” Vol. 19, No. 3(E), August 2007, pp. 44–48.
[10] However, no systematic survey was conducted, nor was there any attempt to identify strikes that may have landed in the desert. HRW interview with the Commander of the National Police Bomb Squad, Ramla, 17 October 2006.
[11] Information on surface-launched cluster munitions produced and possessed by Israel is taken primarily from IMI’s corporate website, www.imi-israel.com. It has been supplemented with information from Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007) and US Defense Intelligence Agency, “Improved Conventional Munitions and Selected Controlled-Fragmentation Munitions (Current and Projected) DST-1160S-020-90.”
[12] Mike Hiebel, Alliant TechSystems, and Ilan Glickman, IMI, “Self-Destruct Fuze for M864 Projectiles and MLRS Rockets,” Presentation to the 48th Annual Fuze Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina, 27–28 April 2004, Slide 9, www.dtic.mil.
[13] HRW, “Flooding South Lebanon: Israel’s Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006,” Vol. 20, No.2(E), February 2008, p. 27.
[14] The transfer of the GRADLAR launchers was reported in UN Register of Conventional Arms,
Submission of Georgia, UN Register of Conventional Arms, Report for Calendar Year 2007, 7 July 2008. The Georgian Ministry of Defense on 1 September 2008 admitted to using Mk.-4 rockets against Russian forces on its website. “Georgian Ministry of Defence’s Response to the Human Rights Watch Inquire about the Usage of M85 Bomblets,” www.mod.gov.ge.
[15] The CMC has received information from Colombian military sources that Colombia stockpiled M971 120mm mortar projectiles produced by Israel, which contain 24 DPICM submunitions. Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean on Cluster Munitions, Quito, 7 November 2008. Notes by the CMC.
[16] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), pp. 370–380.
[17] HRW, “Flooding South Lebanon: Israel’s Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006,” Vol. 20, No.2(E), February 2008, pp. 27–28.
[18] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2005–2006 (London: Routledge, 2005), p. 193; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[19] Human Rights Watch interview with the Commander of the National Police Bomb Squad, Ramla, Israel, 17 October 2006. See also Human Rights Watch, “Lebanon/Israel: Hezbollah Hit Israel with Cluster Munitions During Conflict,” Press release, 18 October 2006, Jerusalem, www.hrw.org.
[20] Survivor Corps, “Explosive Litter, Status Report on Minefields in Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” Draft Report, April 2010, p. 19 (Appendix I: Table of Mined Areas in Israel and West Bank).
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