Summary: Non-signatory Israel has acknowledged the humanitarian concerns associated with cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons and rarely comments on the convention. Israel has never participated in a meeting of the convention and abstained from voting on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016.

Israel is a producer, importer, and exporter of cluster munitions. It likely has a significant number of cluster munitions stockpiled, but has never disclosed information on the number or types. Israel also hosts a stockpile of United States (US) cluster munitions that are available for transfer to Israel in an emergency. Israel’s last use of cluster munitions in southern Lebanon in 2006 was part of the catalyst behind the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Policy

The State of Israel has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Israel has acknowledged humanitarian concerns with cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons. Israel last elaborated its views on accession to the convention in November 2011, when it commented that “instruments” on cluster munitions “may be more expansive, but nevertheless do not enjoy the support of many relevant states,” a clear reference to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]

In December 2016, Israel abstained from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[2] Israel also abstained from the vote on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[3]

Israel did not participate in the diplomatic Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] From 2000—when the Convention on Conventional Weapons (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. It justified its use of cluster munitions in Lebanon in 2006, by arguing the use was 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.”[5]

Israel has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even as an observer. It was invited to, but did not attend the convention’s Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016.

Israel has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[6]

Israel is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Israel is a party to the CCW and in the past supported efforts to address cluster munitions through the CCW framework.[7] Israel has not reviewed that position since the CCW failed in 2011 to agree on a draft protocol on cluster munitions. This effectively ended CCW deliberations on cluster munitions and has left the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole international instrument dedicated to ending the suffering caused by these weapons.

Use

Israel last used cluster munitions in July and August 2006 in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah. It used cluster munitions in 1982 in Lebanon against Syrian forces and non-state armed groups (NSAGs), and in 1978 again in southern Lebanon. In 1973, Israel used cluster munitions in Syria against NSAG training camps near Damascus.[8] The Israeli air force also used cluster bombs against Egyptian air defense positions in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.[9]

In 2008, the Winograd Commission of inquiry appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the 2006 conflict reported a lack of clarity regarding the acceptable or appropriate use of cluster munitions.[10] In 2012, a senior Israeli military officer briefing foreign journalists reportedly said that in any future war with Hezbollah, Israel’s cluster munition use would be “much reduced, significantly reduced,” compared to its previous use of the weapons during the 2006 conflict. According to the official, “Due to a whole range of considerations—legitimacy, our non-indifference to the treaty, effectiveness and other factors—cluster use is expected to be reduced in combat in the rural areas.”[11]

There is no evidence that Israel has used cluster munitions since 2006.

Production and transfer

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.[12]

Israel Military Industries (IMI) has produced, license-produced, and exported cluster munitions including artillery projectiles (105mm, 122mm, 130mm, 152mm, 155mm, 175mm, and 203mm), mortar projectiles (120mm), and rockets (EXTRA, GRADLAR, and LAR-160).[13]

In the past, Israel concluded licensing agreements for production or assembly of the M85 with Germany, India, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom (UK), and the US.[14] Based on lot numbers and production markings, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the UK have also declared stockpiling 155mm artillery projectiles containing M85 submunitions in their transparency reports for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Azerbaijan received a total of 50 Extra surface-to-surface missiles from Israel for its Lynx-type launchers in 2008–2009.[15] Georgia received four GRADLAR 122mm/160mm rocket launcher units from Israel in 2007.[16] State Party Chile has reported that it possessed 249 LAR-160 cluster munition rockets.[17] Israel reportedly also exported the LAR-160 rocket system to Venezuela.[18]

The IMI website no longer lists the M85 DPICM submunition among its products. The sitedid once list the M99 “dual-purpose advanced submunition” that IMI said provided “improved operational safety and reliability” and “guarantees extremely low dud rate” due to three independent fuze mechanisms.[19]

Israel also produced several types of air-dropped cluster munitions. The Rafael Corporation produced ATAP-300, ATAP-500, ATAP-1000 RAM, TAL-1, and TAL-2 cluster bombs, as well as the BARAD Helicopter Submunition Dispenser.[20] In 2011, Venezuela announced its destruction of Israeli-made AS TAL-1 cluster bombs belonging to its air force.[21] An air-dropped cluster bomb of Israeli origin called ARC-32 was stockpiled by Colombia.[22]

Israel has imported cluster munitions from the US, including M26 rockets (each with 644 M77 DPICM submunitions) for its M270 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) launchers and 155mm M483A1 projectiles (each with 88 M42/M46 submunitions). Israel used both in southern Lebanon in 2006. Israel also used US-made and supplied Rockeye cluster bombs (with 247 bomblets each) and CBU-58B cluster bombs (with 650 bomblets each).[23]

Stockpiling

The size and composition of Israel’s current stockpile of cluster munitions is not known, but it is likely to be significant and comprised of the cluster munitions listed above.[24]

Israel also hosts a stockpile of US ammunition, which could be transferred to Israel in an emergency.[25] That cluster munitions were part of this stockpile was revealed in a 2008 US Department of State cable released by Wikileaks in 2011 that contained the claim that in 2008, US-manufactured cluster munitions with more than a 1% tested failure rate “constitute greater than 60 percent of the overall” holdings of cluster munitions in the “pre-positioned War Reserve Stockpiles in Israel (WRSA/I).”[26] The Israeli officials reportedly warned the US that “unless the prohibition is lifted, Israel will have to revise its defensive doctrine, find a solution to the one-percent dud rate requirement for cluster munitions, and look to another type of weapon system on which to center its self defense strategy.”[27]