Iran’s escalating confrontation with Israel has taken a darker turn with the use of cluster munitions—a type of conventional weapon designed to disperse or release multiple smaller explosive submunitions—commonly known as bomblets—over a wide area. On June 19, 2025, Iran launched a ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition warhead toward Israel, scattering explosive submunitions across residential and civilian infrastructure. Among the impacted areas were homes and the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, where multiple injuries and partial evacuations were reported.
This development raises serious questions about adherence to international law, the morality of modern warfare, and whether Israel—long criticized for its own past use of these controversial weapons—will retaliate in kind.
What Are Cluster Munitions?
Iran just crossed a major line. On June 19th, they are reported to have launched a ballistic missile toward Israel that carried a cluster munition warhead. When it exploded in the sky over Israeli territory at around 7,000 feet, it scattered about 20 smaller bomblets across an eight-kilometer radius. These things didn’t hit military targets—they hit neighborhoods. One detonated inside a residential home in the town of Azor. Others landed near the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, where dozens of civilians were injured and the hospital had to partially evacuate.
Iran knew what it was doing. This was a calculated strike aimed at civilian infrastructure.
For those unfamiliar, cluster munitions—also known as cluster bombs—are weapons designed to disperse smaller submunitions over a wide area. These bomblets are ideally supposed to hit military targets spread out across a battlefield, but they’re notorious for being unpredictable.
A significant percentage of them don’t explode on impact. Instead, they stay buried in the ground like landmines, waiting for an unlucky civilian to stumble across them days, months, or even years later. That’s why these weapons are banned by over 120 countries under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Iran isn’t a signatory, and neither is Israel, but that doesn’t make their use any less dangerous—or less wrong.
International humanitarian law still applies. The Geneva Conventions require all combatants to distinguish between civilian and military targets and to avoid attacks that are indiscriminate or disproportionate. Dropping cluster munitions near homes and hospitals absolutely violates that principle. There’s no gray area here. Iran’s latest strike may not just be a violation of the rules—it could very well be classified as a war crime.
Now, before we start throwing too many stones, it’s worth remembering that Israel has used these weapons before—and in a big way. During the 2006 war in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces dropped an estimated four million submunitions over southern Lebanon, many of them in the final 72 hours of the conflict. That left the area littered with unexploded bomblets, turning villages into de facto minefields. Human Rights Watch and other organizations documented the civilian toll. The backlash was swift and sharp. Israel didn’t sign the 2008 ban, but it did stop producing cluster munitions in 2018 and hasn’t been reported to use them in recent years.
Iran’s escalating confrontation with Israel has taken a darker turn with the use of cluster munitions—a type of conventional weapon designed to disperse or release multiple smaller explosive submunitions—commonly known as bomblets—over a wide area. On June 19, 2025, Iran launched a ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition warhead toward Israel, scattering explosive submunitions across residential and civilian infrastructure. Among the impacted areas were homes and the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, where multiple injuries and partial evacuations were reported.
This development raises serious questions about adherence to international law, the morality of modern warfare, and whether Israel—long criticized for its own past use of these controversial weapons—will retaliate in kind.
What Are Cluster Munitions?
Iran just crossed a major line. On June 19th, they are reported to have launched a ballistic missile toward Israel that carried a cluster munition warhead. When it exploded in the sky over Israeli territory at around 7,000 feet, it scattered about 20 smaller bomblets across an eight-kilometer radius. These things didn’t hit military targets—they hit neighborhoods. One detonated inside a residential home in the town of Azor. Others landed near the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, where dozens of civilians were injured and the hospital had to partially evacuate.
Iran knew what it was doing. This was a calculated strike aimed at civilian infrastructure.
For those unfamiliar, cluster munitions—also known as cluster bombs—are weapons designed to disperse smaller submunitions over a wide area. These bomblets are ideally supposed to hit military targets spread out across a battlefield, but they’re notorious for being unpredictable.
A significant percentage of them don’t explode on impact. Instead, they stay buried in the ground like landmines, waiting for an unlucky civilian to stumble across them days, months, or even years later. That’s why these weapons are banned by over 120 countries under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Iran isn’t a signatory, and neither is Israel, but that doesn’t make their use any less dangerous—or less wrong.
International humanitarian law still applies. The Geneva Conventions require all combatants to distinguish between civilian and military targets and to avoid attacks that are indiscriminate or disproportionate. Dropping cluster munitions near homes and hospitals absolutely violates that principle. There’s no gray area here. Iran’s latest strike may not just be a violation of the rules—it could very well be classified as a war crime.
Now, before we start throwing too many stones, it’s worth remembering that Israel has used these weapons before—and in a big way. During the 2006 war in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces dropped an estimated four million submunitions over southern Lebanon, many of them in the final 72 hours of the conflict. That left the area littered with unexploded bomblets, turning villages into de facto minefields. Human Rights Watch and other organizations documented the civilian toll. The backlash was swift and sharp. Israel didn’t sign the 2008 ban, but it did stop producing cluster munitions in 2018 and hasn’t been reported to use them in recent years.
While we are at it, I would be remiss not to mention that the US has not signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions either. The U.S. government maintains that cluster bombs have military utility and considers them a legal weapon, despite acknowledging humanitarian concerns. As of 2024, the U.S. is among several major military powers—including Russia, China, and others—that have neither signed nor ratified the treaty.
As of now, there’s no evidence that Israel has used cluster bombs in this latest exchange with Iran. That’s important. It shows a measure of restraint that wasn’t always there in the past. While Israel does still have cluster munitions in its arsenal, it appears the IDF has opted for conventional precision-guided munitions in its recent retaliatory strikes. That could change, of course, if the conflict escalates, but for now, only one side is using these banned weapons—and that’s Iran.
This latest development is more than just another missile attack. It marks a shift in how Iran is willing to conduct warfare. By using cluster munitions against civilian targets, Iran is sending a message: it’s ready to fight dirty. That’s not just dangerous for Israel. It sets a precedent that could bleed into other conflicts in the region. When you normalize the use of these kinds of weapons, you invite chaos. And it’s always the civilians who pay the price.
In the end, what Iran did on June 19th was more than a breach of international norms—it was a deliberate act of violence against civilians. It complicates any chance of de-escalation, inflames public outrage, and pushes this conflict into even murkier waters. Whether or not international bodies hold Iran accountable remains to be seen. But on the ground, the message is clear: no one is safe when war crimes become standard operating procedure.
Wrapping Up
The use of cluster munitions is a clear line in modern warfare—crossing it places a nation in dangerous moral and legal territory. Iran’s strike on June 19th is an assertion that the old rules no longer apply.
Israel, for now, has chosen not to reciprocate with similar weapons. But the historical record suggests that restraint may not hold forever.
In the shifting calculus of Middle Eastern warfare, cluster munitions have proven to be a litmus test for how far combatants are willing to go.
And based on what we’ve seen, that distance is getting shorter by the day.
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