Hezbollah accuses Israel of using internationally banned cluster bombs in southern Lebanon

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) – Hezbollah accused on Tuesday Israel of bombing areas in southern Lebanon with internationally banned cluster munitions, calling on international human rights and humanitarian organizations to condemn this " heinous crime."

“The Israeli enemy today launched rockets filled with internationally prohibited cluster bombs” in regions of Nabatieh province in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese group said in a statement.

It urged “the relevant authorities in Lebanon and international human rights and humanitarian organizations condemn this heinous crime by all standards, especially given its far-reaching negative impacts on civilians.”

The use of cluster bombs in or near populated areas is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions as they pose a threat to the lives of civilians.

Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing more than a million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed nearly 42,400 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

It expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala