Iran Increasingly Employing Cluster Munitions Against Israeli Civilians

The Islamic Republic of Iran is using ballistic missiles to fire cluster munitions against Israel with the intention of inflicting maximum carnage against civilians.

Two people were killed by Iranian strikes on March 8 and 9; an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) spokesman said one of the missiles was equipped with cluster munitions. Several people were reported to have been injured by cluster munitions in central Israel that saw impacts on at least six different sites across the region. The March 9 strike also damaged a children’s playground in the central Israeli city of Rishon LeZion.

A cluster munition is a weapon that releases many smaller submunitions that can damage multiple targets across a wider area than a unitary warhead. The Iranian missiles reportedly spread between 24 and 80 submunitions in a radius of around 5 miles. This large dispersal pattern makes the weapons impractical for hitting specific and especially hardened military targets, but still capable of inflicting damage on large numbers of people. Employing these munitions against urban areas can be particularly deadly.

Cluster Munitions: A Problem of Interception and Clean Up

Iranian cluster munitions create interception challenges for Israel’s missile defenses. By using cluster munitions that disperse submunitions at high altitude, Iran is able to turn one missile into dozens of smaller projectiles. Intercepting the missile before it releases the submunitions would mitigate the issue, but such an early interception is not always possible, especially when missiles are launched in large numbers at the same time.

When submunitions fail to detonate on impact, they can remain on the ground as unexploded ordnance. This can cause injuries to civilians, often years later. As a result, Israel’s Home Front Command has instructed citizens not to approach unexploded munitions following missile attacks. The United States has spent more than $5.9 billion since 1993 helping more than 125 countries with conventional weapons destruction, including land surveying for cluster munition remnants.

Iran Repeatedly Targeting Israeli Civilians With Cluster Bombs

The IDF first reported cluster munitions attacks on February 28 at the onset of the current conflict. Iranian attacks on Israel have employed cluster munitions “almost on a daily basis,” an IDF spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. With Iran’s ballistic missile launcher fleet heavily degraded by the U.S. and Israel military campaign, Iran is likely hoping that the use of cluster munitions will increase the number of casualties caused by each individual missile.

A February 28 strike reportedly targeted central Israel, with one of the submunitions striking a basketball court. Additional cluster munitions were reported throughout the first week of March, damaging cars, commercial centers, and residential buildings in metropolitan Tel Aviv and other places in central Israel.

The precise frequency of Iran’s employment of cluster munitions is not publicly known, but the IDF continues to confirm their use. On March 5, Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that Iran had launched cluster munitions against Israel on some six occasions throughout the conflict. Later, in an IDF press briefing March 10, Israel stated that 50 percent of the ballistic missiles fired at Israel during the conflict until now have been cluster munitions.

U.S. Should Highlight Regime Use of Cluster Munitions

Iran’s ballistic missile attacks and use of cluster munitions against the United States and its partners in both Israel and the Arab world underscore the need to complete one of the core missions that the Trump administration and the Pentagon have identified for the current military campaign: the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers, and ballistic missile production capacity. 

Iran’s use of ballistic missiles also highlights the need for Washington and Jerusalem to work together to expand production, and the associated supply bases, in both the United States and Israel of Arrow missile defense interceptors, launchers, radars, and command centers. Additional midcourse intercept capability, associated with Arrow 3, could help destroy missiles before they release submunitions.

Aaron Goren is a research analyst and editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Justin Leopold-Cohen is a senior research analyst with the Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP) at FDD, where Ryan Brobst is the deputy director. For more analysis from Aaron, Justin, Ryan, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Aaron on X @RealAaronGoren, Justin at @jleopoldcohen, and Ryan @RyanBrobst_. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.