Israel says Iran has been firing cluster munitions throughout their 10-day war — adding a complicated and deadly challenge to Israel’s already-stretched air defenses.
The warheads burst open at high altitudes, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets across a wide area. The smaller bombs, which at night can resemble orange fireballs, are difficult to intercept and have proven lethal.
Normally restrictive about releasing information on Iranian hits and damage, Israeli authorities in recent days have sought to educate the public about their dangers, which can persist as unexploded bombs on the ground even after civilians leave shelters. At least three people have been killed, including two at a construction site in central Israel on Tuesday.
Over 120 countries have signed an international convention banning the use of cluster munitions.
Here’s what to know about cluster munitions:
The bomblets scatter and kill indiscriminately
After what’s called a parent munition is launched, it releases smaller submunitions at an altitude of 7-10 kilometers (4-6 miles). These bomblets scatter across a large area, from several hundred meters (yards) to several kilometers (miles), trading precision for coverage.
Critics worldwide argue that cluster munitions kill or maim indiscriminately, with unexploded bomblets remaining dangerous long after their use. In Israel, they can be especially dangerous because most of the missiles have been aimed at its densely populated center.
“Cluster bombs don’t create real damage to buildings, only people,” said Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.
Tough to shoot down
An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously under army briefing rules, said Tuesday that roughly half of the projectiles Iran was launching toward Israel had been cluster munitions.
Israel’s Arrow missile-defense system has done a good job intercepting incoming ballistic missiles, Kalisky said. But if cluster munitions are released before the missile is destroyed, there is little that can be done.
Israel’s Iron Dome system is geared toward intercepting smaller rockets fired from short ranges and lower altitudes. But it isn’t designed to destroy the clusters once they’ve dispersed into dozens of bomblets, Kalisky added.
Unlike heavier explosives, the bomblets — often weighing less than 3 kilograms (7 pounds) — are most dangerous to targets like cars, storefronts or people caught outside shelters.
Tough to shoot down
An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously under army briefing rules, said Tuesday that roughly half of the projectiles Iran was launching toward Israel had been cluster munitions.
Israel’s Arrow missile-defense system has done a good job intercepting incoming ballistic missiles, Kalisky said. But if cluster munitions are released before the missile is destroyed, there is little that can be done.
Israel’s Iron Dome system is geared toward intercepting smaller rockets fired from short ranges and lower altitudes. But it isn’t designed to destroy the clusters once they’ve dispersed into dozens of bomblets, Kalisky added.
Unlike heavier explosives, the bomblets — often weighing less than 3 kilograms (7 pounds) — are most dangerous to targets like cars, storefronts or people caught outside shelters.
“They pose a particular threat to the civilian population both during and after use, with victims often including a high proportion of children,” according to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The submunitions fail to explode more often than other kinds of warheads. Unexploded ordnance can act like a land mine, detonating later and killing indiscriminately.
The Open Source Munitions Portal, which authenticates publicly sourced images of munitions worldwide, has published several images of unexploded submunitions found in Israel this week. It also verified images of Israeli submunitions being used in Lebanon last year. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, declined to comment directly on the allegation, but pointed to a post on the military’s Substack, which noted that cluster bombs can be used against military targets but not civilian areas.
Iran has used them frequently
Most of the damage in Israel has been caused by larger Iranian missiles, but Iran has been using cluster munitions on a “nearly daily basis,” Shoshani said. He says Iran fired similar projectiles during the 12-day war in June.
The military said the Iranian warheads contain between 20 and 24 bomblets with explosives weighing up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds).
The Israeli military’s Home Front Command has distributed flyers warning residents not to touch unexploded submunitions. A public service announcement from police also warned people not to touch anything they see and to call authorities instead.
What Iran is using
According to the Missile Defense Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Iran said in 2017 that its Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missile could carry multiple warheads. The missiles are the largest of Iran’s submunition-dispersing arsenal. Iran also has submunition-equipped shorter range Zolfaghar missiles.
Cluster munitions, including those seen in Associated Press video flying westward toward Israel, can look like falling fireballs — an effect caused by the friction of reentering the atmosphere.
N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, said little open-source information exists about Iran’s cluster munitions beyond state television reports of leaders touring missile factories and videos from military exercises. But videos showing them used last week indicate that some Iranian missiles carrying cluster munition warheads are designed to open at high altitude, scattering them across an area far larger than most military targets.
Design components that disperse them at such heights — including a protective coating on the submunitions that can withstand the heat of atmospheric reentry — appear to show they were built for far less precise use than cluster munitions seen in other conflicts.
“The design seems to scatter submunitions so widely as to suggest it was designed purely as a weapon of terror, scattering its explosive cargo indiscriminately over a wide area,” Jenzen-Jones said.
In July 2025, after the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, Amnesty International said Iran’s “deliberate use of such inherently indiscriminate weapons is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
(AP & YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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One Response
Wow – so Iran is violating international law? I’m really not understanding what the article is about. We all know they are bad people and are out to kill any Jews they can. That’s what they said, that’s what they do. What’s the sudden realizations that they are using bombs meant for civilians? What’s your point? That we are correct in attacking them? Yeah anyone can see that. Besides since all civilians are supposed to be drafted I guess you can say that everyone is a military target.