Israel’s most recent war against the people of Lebanon left hundreds of thousands of unexploded, US-supplied cluster bombs in the country. Back in September of 2006, it was estimated that 500,000 of the 1.2 million cluster bomblets that were dropped on Lebanon did not detonate on impact, essentially becoming landmines (though cluster bomblets are generally more powerful than most common landmines). Jan Egeland, the UN’s humanitarian chief, described the use of cluster bombs in populated civilian areas as both criminal and immoral due to the fact that “90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we knew there would be an end.”

A hailstorm, with hailstones as large as walnuts, is now causing hundreds of cluster bomblets to explode in south Lebanon. When a cluster bomblet explodes, it sends shrapnel 150 feet in all directions. This shrapnel travels at such high speeds that it sends a pressure wave through the body on impact able to explode internal organs. Many cluster bombs are made of plastic to avoid detection by clearance teams. This same characteristic makes it difficult for surgeons to locate the shrapnel with X-ray equipment in order to remove the foreign objects from their victims.