The Legal Agenda is presenting a series of reports of war crimes committed by Israel in the context of its aggression against Lebanon. These reports are an attempt to document these crimes and pave the way for an independent and transparent investigation into them. They are based on preliminary information available at the time of their publication and are being periodically updated. We hope that they can contribute to the necessary national efforts to document war crimes.

Summary

In November 2024, the Lebanese state documented 15 cluster bomb attacks by the Israeli occupation army on multiple Lebanese areas in four different districts (Marjayoun, Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil, and Jezzine). These attacks constitute war crimes as international law prohibits the use of these munitions. Cluster bombs release a number of submunitions that disperse over a wide area, and unexploded submunitions become akin to mines scattered throughout the targeted areas that kill and maim residents for years after the conflict ends. These attacks also constitute a continuation of the strategy that Israel adopted in its previous wars on Lebanon – one whose effects Lebanon is still suffering to this day.

Facts:

Southern Lebanon, November 2024

• On October 13, Hezbollah issued a statement accusing Israel of bombing the area between the towns of Hanine and At Tiri, Bint Jbeil District, with rockets loaded with cluster munitions.
• On October 15, Hezbollah issued a statement accusing Israel of launching rockets loaded with cluster munitions at Wadi al-Khanazir in Wadi al-Hujair (Marjayoun District), at Khallat Raj between the towns of Aalman and Deir Siryan, and east of Aalman in the direction of the woods (Marjayoun District).
• In its 41st report on Israeli attacks on Lebanon, issued on November 9, the Lebanese government documented – for the first time – six cluster bomb attacks. As of November 16 (the date of the 47th report), the number of cluster bomb attacks documented by the government had reached 14.
• Between November 6 and November 16, the National Council for Scientific Research told the Legal Agenda that it had documented 15 Israeli attacks with cluster munitions on several Lebanese areas, as detailed in the table below.
• On November 19, the National News Agency reported that the Litani River had been bombed with cluster projectiles in the vicinity of Berghoz, Kelya, and Zellaya, Western Beqaa District.

Context

• The deliberate use of cluster bombs is part of Israel’s acts of reprisal and punishment directed against the population of Southern Lebanon and Western Beqaa and its efforts to obstruct their return to their towns. Via these attacks, Israel aims to disrupt the day-to-day life of the inhabitants, not just during the war but also after it ends, by turning vast swaths of agricultural and residential land and water resources into danger zones and thereby impeding civilians’ ability to access and utilize them. Consequently, these areas could become devoid of life.
• These attacks constitute a continuation of the strategy that Israel adopted in its previous wars on Lebanon, especially the July 2006 war. According to a Human Rights Watch report, Israel fired cluster munitions containing up to 4.6 million submunitions in 962 separate strikes. More than 850 strike sites were hit during the last 72 hours of the 2006 war, after the Security Council adopted Resolution 1701 calling for a cessation of hostilities.
• Unexploded cluster munitions continued to claim the lives of residents of Southern Lebanon and cause them physical, psychological, and material harm and physical disabilities for many years after the wars ended. According to the Lebanon Mine Action Center, the number of victims of cluster bombs reached 168 killed (including 85 children) and 577 wounded and disabled between the years of 1975 and 2023. These bombs have also prevented them from accessing their lands and weighed down Lebanese society with the costs and burdens of disarming and removing them. Although Resolution 1701 stipulated that Israel must provide the United Nations with maps of the mines in Lebanon, to this day it has not handed over all these maps, thereby exacerbating the harm they cause.

The Laws of War

• The term “cluster munition” means a conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions each weighing less than 20 kilograms, and it includes those explosive submunitions (Article 2 of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions). Unexploded cluster munitions are akin to antipersonnel mines, which are banned under the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.
• The Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits party states from using, producing, otherwise acquiring, stockpiling, or retaining this type of munition. The convention was signed by Lebanon and ratified by the Lebanese Parliament in 2010.
• Although Israel has not joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions or the Anti-Personnel Mines Convention (which Lebanon has not joined either), their provisions are still part of customary international humanitarian law, which comprises the most universally recognized humanitarian principles and indicates the normal conduct and behavior expected of states. This was affirmed by the Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons issued by the International Court of Justice, which cited, in particular, the fact that customary humanitarian principles prohibit the use of weapons incapable of discriminating between civilian and military targets (paragraphs 78 to 82 of the advisory opinion issued on 8 July 1996).
• It is prohibited to use antipersonnel mines which are not detectable. An antipersonnel mine is defined as a mine primarily designed to be exploded by the presence, proximity or contact of a person and that will incapacitate, injure or kill one or more persons (Articles 2 and 4 of the  Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects). Lebanon (2017) and Israel (2000) have ratified this protocol, although the latter added reservations to some of its articles.
• It is prohibited to employ weapons, projectiles, and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering (Paragraph 2 of Article 35 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions).
• The use of cluster bombs violates the principle of distinction between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives (Article 48 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions). This is because they often strike combatants and civilians alike and because they leave large quantities of unexploded ordnance, which often injures a greater number of civilians indiscriminately, even after the armed conflict ends.
• The use of cluster munitions is considered a violation of the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks, i.e. attacks that are not directed at a specific military objective or employ a method or means of combat that cannot be directed at a specific military objective and that, consequently, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction (Paragraph 4 of Article 51 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions).
• The use of cluster munitions is considered a violation of the principle of proportionality, which prohibits launching an attack that may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, that would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated (Rule 14 of the International Committee of the Red Cross database of customary humanitarian law).

Previous Reports of Israeli War Crimes in Lebanon

• War Crime Alert No. 1: The Targeting of an Islamic Health Organization Center and Its Staff, Bachoura, Beirut, 2 October 2024
• War Crime Alert No. 2: The Targeting of Salah Ghandour Hospital, Bint Jbeil, Nabatieh, 4 October 2024
• War Crime Alert No. 3: Rescue Operations Blocked in Mreijeh, Dahieh, Beirut, 4 October 2024 Onwards
• War Crime Alert No. 4: The Targeting of the Bint Jbeil Fire Station and Brigade, Baraachit, 6 October 2024
• War Crime Alert No. 5: The Targeting of UN Peacekeepers, Southern Lebanon, 4-20 October 2024
• War Crime Alert No. 6: Attacks on al-Qard al-Hasan Association, Lebanon, 20 October 2024
• War Crime Alert No. 7: Massacre in the Vicinity of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Beirut, 21 October 2024
• War Crimes Alert No. 8: Threatening Sahel Hospital, Haret Hreik, Dahieh, Beirut, 21 October 2024
• War Crimes Alert No. 9: Attack on Journalists in Hasbaya, 25 October 2024
• War Crimes Alert No. 10: Destruction of the Historic Village of Mhaibib, Southern Lebanon, 16 October 2024
• War Crimes Alert No. 11: Attacks on IDPs Accommodations Intended to Spread Terror, September–October 2024
• War Crimes Alert No. 12: Destruction of Cemeteries in Southern Lebanon, October 2024
• War Crimes Alert No. 13: Violating the Rights of POWs, Southern Lebanon, October 2024
• War Crimes Alert No. 14: Attack on the Baalbek Civil Defense Regional Center and Its Staff, 14 November 2024

This article is an edited translation from Arabic.