"Cluster munitions are unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "They should never be used in populated areas."

According to eyewitnesses and survivors of the attack interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Israel fired several artillery-fired cluster munitions at Blida around 3 p.m. on July 19. The witnesses described how the artillery shells dropped hundreds of cluster submunitions on the village. They clearly described the submunitions as smaller projectiles that emerged from their larger shells.

The cluster attack killed 60-year-old Maryam Ibrahim inside her home. At least two submunitions from the attack entered the basement that the Ali family was using as a shelter, wounding 12 persons, including seven children. Ahmed Ali, a 45-year-old taxi driver and head of the family, lost both legs from injuries caused by the cluster munitions. Five of his children were wounded: Mira, 16; Fatima, 12; 'Ali, 10; Aya, 3; and 'Ola, 1. His wife Akram Ibrahim, 35, and his mother-in-law 'Ola Musa, 80, were also wounded. Four relatives, all German-Lebanese dual nationals sheltering with the family, were wounded as well: Mohammed Ibrahim, 45; his wife Fatima, 40; and their children 'Ali, 16, and Rula, 13.

Human Rights Watch researchers photographed artillery-delivered cluster munitions among the arsenal of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) artillery teams stationed on the Israeli-Lebanese border during a research visit on July 23. The photographs show M483A1 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions, which are U.S.-produced and -supplied, artillery-delivered cluster munitions. The photographs contain the distinctive marks of such cluster munitions, including a diamond-shaped stamp, and a shape that is longer than ordinary artillery, according to a retired IDF commander who asked not to be identified.

The M483A1 artillery shells deliver 88 cluster submunitions per shell, and have an unacceptably high failure rate (dud rate) of 14 percent, leaving behind a serious unexploded ordnance problem that will further endanger civilians. The commander said that the IDF's operations manual warns soldiers that the use of such cluster munitions creates dangerous minefields due to the high dud rate.


Lebanese security forces, who to date have not engaged in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, also accused Israel of using cluster munitions in its attacks on Blida and other Lebanese border villages. These sources also indicated they have evidence that Israel used cluster munitions earlier this year during fighting with Hezbollah around the contested Shebaa Farms area. Human Rights Watch is continuing to investigate these additional allegations.

Human Rights Watch believes that the use of cluster munitions in populated areas may violate the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks contained in international humanitarian law. The wide dispersal pattern of their submunitions makes it very difficult to avoid civilian casualties if civilians are in the area. Moreover, because of their high failure rate, cluster munitions leave large numbers of hazardous, explosive duds that injure and kill civilians even after the attack is over. Human Rights Watch believes that cluster munitions should never be used, even away from civilians, unless their dud rate is less than 1 percent.

Human Rights Watch conducted detailed analyses of the U.S. military's use of cluster bombs in the 1999 Yugoslavia war, the 2001-2002 Afghanistan war, and the 2003 Iraq war. Human Rights Watch research established that the use of cluster munitions in populated areas in Iraq caused more civilian casualties than any other factor in the U.S.-led coalition's conduct of major military operations in March and April 2003, killing and wounding more than 1,000 Iraqi civilians. Roughly a quarter of the 500 civilian deaths caused by NATO bombing in the 1999 Yugoslavia war were also due to cluster munitions.

"Our research in Iraq and Kosovo shows that cluster munitions cannot be used in populated areas without huge loss of civilian life," Roth said. "Israel must stop using cluster bombs in Lebanon at once."

Human Rights Watch called upon the Israel Defense Forces to immediately cease the use of indiscriminate weapons like cluster munitions in Lebanon.

Background

Israel used cluster munitions in Lebanon in 1978 and in the 1980s. At that time, the United States placed restrictions on their use and then a moratorium on the transfer of cluster munitions to Israel out of concern for civilian casualties. Those weapons used more than two decades ago continue to affect Lebanon.

Israel has in its arsenal cluster munitions delivered by aircraft, artillery and rockets. Israel is a major producer and exporter of cluster munitions, primarily artillery projectiles and rockets containing M85 DPICM (Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition) submunitions. Israeli Military Industries, an Israeli government-owned weapons manufacturer, has reportedly produced more than 60 million M85 DPICM submunitions. Israel also produces at least six different types of air-dropped cluster bombs, and has imported from the United States M26 rockets for its Multiple Launch Rocket Systems.

There is growing international momentum to stop the use of cluster munitions. Belgium became the first country to ban cluster munitions in February 2006, and Norway announced a moratorium on the weapon in June 2006. Cluster munitions are increasingly the focus of discussion at the meetings of the Convention on Conventional Weapons, with ever more states calling for a new international instrument dealing with cluster munitions.

Human Rights Watch is a founding member, and a steering committee member, of the Cluster Munition Coalition: www.stopclustermunitions.org.

Bishara made the accusation during an interview on Friday with Britain's Sky News. He derided the notion that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had okayed the offensive against Hizbullah to protect Israel's citizens, asserting that Olmert was acting because the United States had sought war to "break the stalemate in Lebanon."

He also referred to Hizbullah's Katyusha rocket fire as "grenades on Haifa."

The interviewer, apparently dumbstruck by the hostility to Israel being demonstrated by a member of its parliament, asked Bishara whether it was not the case that Syria and Iran, the nations supporting Hizbullah, seek Israel's destruction.

Bishara responded that Israel had "a problematic relationship" with its neighbors because it was occupying and bombarding Gaza. He said that the current escalation could have been resolved with a much more minor Israeli military response to the Hizbullah incursion on July 12 and a subsequent prisoner exchange.

National Union-National Religious Party MK Aryeh Eldad responded that he would advise Bishara to move to the Dachya neighborhood of Beirut, "so he could show his solidarity with Hizbullah in actions and not merely in words."

His colleague, National Union-National Religious Party MK Zevulun Orlev, said Bishara was "sticking a knife in the IDF's back at a time of war" and that MKs who say such things should not be in the Knesset. Orlev proposed a bill revoking the Knesset membership of any MK who overtly supports Israel's enemies.

Knesset Law Committee chairman Menahem Ben-Sasson (Kadima) agreed to Orlev's request to expedite the bill's passage. A special session of the law committee during the Knesset recess will discuss the bill, but its passage in the Knesset plenum cannot be completed until after the recess ends in October.

Ben-Sasson, who voted against the bill when it passed its preliminary reading, said he is against statements from Arab MKs that identify with Israel's enemies , but that he opposes the bill, because he does not believe the Knesset should take the place of the courts. He said he prefers creating an atmosphere when such statements would not be made.

Condoleezza Rice, who arrived here Monday evening for a 24-hour visit, is not expected to dictate a cease-fire to Israel.

She said as much over the weekend, telling a press conference before setting out for the region that a cease-fire that froze the status quo ante would ensure that "we will be back here in six months again or in five months or in nine months or in a year, trying to get another cease-fire because Hizbullah will have decided yet again to try and to use southern Lebanon as a sanctuary to fire against Israel."

No one doubts that US President George W. Bush is a friend of Israel, that he understands Israel's predicament better than most if not all of his predecessors, and that he is very supportive of Jerusalem's policies.

But there is more than just pro-Israel sentiment to Washington's giving Jerusalem a longer military grace period than ever before.

Bush is keen on providing Israel more time to pound Hizbullah because while this serves Israel's interests, it also serves America's goals.

First of all, Bush has proven his intent to spread democracy to the Middle East, believing this to be in the strategic interest of the US. Lebanon is a prime candidate, and a roundly defeated Hizbullah would give the nascent Lebanese democracy needed oxygen to grow and take root.

Second, the US is engaged in a global war on terrorism, and Hizbullah and Hamas are key soldiers in that war. Their victory anywhere is America's defeat, because it would embolden others like them to spread Islamic radicalism. Their defeat, their weakened position, is a victory for America.

That's in the long term.

In the short term, a defeated Hizbullah is a blow to Iran, and a blow to Iran is good for the US because Teheran is up to its eyeballs in causing trouble for the US in Iraq.

As the Chicago Tribune, not exactly a newspaper that can be accused of a pro-Israel tilt, editorialized Sunday, "Iraq is spiraling deeper into violence, with a powerful assist from Iran. Last month, the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said the Iranians are providing weapons, roadside bomb technology and training to Shi'ite extremist groups. Some of the training is being done in Iran, and some by Hizbullah at Iran's behest, he said.

"Pumped with oil wealth, Iran is testing its limits," the paper wrote. "It is challenging the world, directly and by proxy. The answer must be swift and sure, not just on the battlefield, but in the Security Council. Iran is counting on distracting the world long enough to go nuclear. A hard slap of sanctions by the council would show Teheran that the greatest powers on earth aren't so easily bamboozled."

That's what the Tribune wrote. But by taking his time in sending Rice here, and then by not directing Rice to order Israel to stop the shooting, Bush is making clear that he feels Iran needs much more than just the hard "slap of sanctions" at the United Nations over the nuclear issue, it also needs its main proxy to feel the sharp sting of a military defeat.

That serves Israel's interest, but also the US's. Otherwise, Bush would not be giving the IDF so much time.

His comments came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended a regional tour before heading for talks in Rome.

Hostilities are continuing, with fresh explosions reported in Beirut and Hezbollah rocket attacks on Haifa.

More than 380 Lebanese and 42 Israelis have died in nearly two weeks of conflict in Lebanon, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.

Another soldier was seized by Palestinian militants earlier.

In the latest military action:

* Israeli warplanes have reportedly hit a UN observation post in south Lebanon. A UN spokesman quoted by Reuters news agency said a bomb hit the post in the Khiam area, but he would not confirm reports from Lebanese security sources that four peacekeepers were killed

* The Israeli army said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Abu Jaafar, in fighting in southern Lebanon

* Earlier the UN had said Israeli forces were now in control of the town of Bint Jbeil after fierce fighting and were moving on the village of Yaroun to the south

* Israel resumed air raids on Beirut, with explosions heard in southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold

* Hezbollah maintained fire of Katyusha rockets into Israel, killing a 15-year-old Arab-Israeli girl in the northern Israeli village of Maghar and striking Haifa with a large salvo

* Hezbollah said 27 of its fighters had been killed as of Monday, but the Israeli military said it had killed "some dozens".

Truce call

Mr Peretz said a zone in southern Lebanon would be maintained "under the control of our forces if there is not a multinational force".

He did not specify whether Israeli troops would remain there but insisted they would "continue to control [Hezbollah]" in their operations.

Israeli government sources have estimated the width of the zone at anything from three to 10km (1.9-6.2 miles).

An unnamed Israeli official quoted by Reuters news agency said between 10,000 and 20,000 international peacekeepers would be needed.

BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson says Israeli details on the zone - and how it will be secured - are far from clear.

He says it is possible Mr Peretz is trying to put pressure on the international community to deliver the peacekeeping force.

The idea of the multinational force is likely to be high on the agenda of a key international ministerial meeting on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday.

The UN has had a military force - Unifil - in Lebanon to patrol the border since 1978 and is currently 2,000 strong.

Earlier, Ms Rice had expressed concern for the suffering of "innocent people" in the fighting during her tour of the Middle East.

She met Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and later Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr Abbas called for an immediate end to "aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank" and for an "immediate ceasefire" in Lebanon.

Ms Rice said the only solution was a sustainable and enduring peace.

Her words were reinforced later by US President George W Bush who said: "I support a sustainable ceasefire that will bring about an end to violence... Our mission and our goal is to have a lasting peace, not a temporary peace."

'New' Middle East

In his meeting with Ms Rice, Mr Olmert said he was "very conscious" of the humanitarian needs of Lebanon's civilians, but insisted Israel was defending itself against terrorism.

Correspondents say that Ms Rice was unlikely to have called for an end to Israel's military offensive during her talks with the Israeli leader.

The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson, in Jerusalem, says it was understood that Ms Rice would tell Israel that the US will allow it more time to continue its military operations.

Ms Rice has, however, also been highlighting the need for Israel to consider the humanitarian needs of both Lebanon and the Palestinian people and the need for a durable peace.

She said: "It is time for a new Middle East, it is time to say to those who do not want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail; they will not."

Ms Rice arrived in Israel from Beirut, where she met Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

The Israeli military, which prides itself on a history of brilliant victories over the Arabs, was caught unawares when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed four sailors in an attack on an Israeli navy boat.

An Iranian-made radar-guided anti-ship missile was used in the attack, the Israeli military has said, and Tel Aviv is admitting that it was caught off-guard, a second time.

"We were not aware that Hezbollah possessed this kind of missile," Rear Admiral Noam Faig, Israel Navy (IN) head of operations, told Jane's Defence Weekly last week. "We are familiar with that missile from other areas, but assumed that the threat was not present in Lebanon."

Prepared for showdown

In relative terms, the militia has had more success in fighting Israel than many Arab states and analysts say the group was well prepared for the showdown.

Amal Saad-Ghoreyeb, author of "Hezbollah: Politics and Religion" told Aljazeera.net: "A lot of commentators say the group must have miscalculated. But Hezbollah's ability to provide a military deterrent must be indicative of the fact that the movement was prepared for such an Israeli onslaught."

Twenty Israeli soldiers have been killed and several tanks destroyed by Hezbollah, who has confirmed that 13 of its fighters have also been killed.

Israel says Hezbollah's losses are as high as 100.

Hezbollah's tactics are becoming clearer as the conflict continues. The group has a military force as large as 5000 that is divided into decentralised divisions, and since the Israeli withdrawal from the south in 2000, the group has been preparing underground tunnels across south Lebanon and building sophisticated armoury.

Vietnam style warfare

Military analysts have drawn comparisons between the Hezbollah and Vietnamese fighters and other guerrilla forces in their tactics.

"They are well armed, well motivated combat veterans from the 1990s. It's the old Mao Tsetung guerrilla strategy of retreating when the enemy advances and advancing when the enemy retreats," Nicholas Blandford, the Jane's Defence Weekly analyst in Lebanon, told Aljazeera.net.

Unlike many Arab militaries that are under tight, centralised control, Hezbollah works in small decentralised groups that are able to respond quickly without permission from senior ranks.

"They always operate in small isolated cells. One cell does not know what the other cell is doing. I am sure Hassan Nasrallah does not know what the military wing is doing sometimes. This decentralised structure is part of the group's military potency," Saad-Ghoreyeb said.

The last war Israel fought in Lebanon was against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1982; but the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli invasion was mostly unsuccessful as it was infiltrated with informers and applied tactics similar to a regular army.

This time Israel faces a far more formidable force made up of dedicated and secretive members who have years of experience in fighting a guerrilla war in south Lebanon.


Fierce fighting

Reports from Israeli soldiers returning from raids in Lebanon say that they have fought fierce battles with a formidable foe.

"They're not normal soldiers, you know," one was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "They're guerrillas. They're very smart."

But although Hezbollah have fared well up until now, it remains to be seen how long they can sustain the fierce Israeli assault.

Supply lines within Lebanon have been cut and the group will also have difficulties importing weapons from outside the country. However, according to Israeli reports they have enough rockets to last them for a month.

"The rate of rocket fire has dwindled since last Wednesday. Whether this is a tactical move or because they are running low on supplies is impossible to say," Blanford said.

Ground war?

What is likely is that Hezbollah are waiting for a full-scale invasion so they can engage Israel on the ground and fight a guerrilla war in the wadis and mountains of south Lebanon.

"As for us, our equation and principles are the following: When the Israelis enter, they must pay dearly in terms of their tanks, officers, soldiers. This is what we pledge to do and we will honour our pledge, God willing," Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah secretary general, said in an interview with Aljazeera on Thursday.

Tel Aviv ended its 18-year-long occupation of the border area in 2000 and is unlikely to re-engage in a conflict that was sometimes referred to as "Israel's Vietnam".

Alon Ben-David, a Jane's Defence Weekly correspondent wrote in last week's issue that the Israeli military has suffered "considerable" casualties in its push north in Lebanon.

"The Israeli forces have discovered that Hezbollah has established a Viet Cong-style network of tunnels and trenches close to the Israeli border, providing shelter for its operatives and their weapons," he said.

"I think it's preposterous. From the beginning this is a plan that cannot be achieved," former Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Maher told Reuters.

In the meantime, by giving the green light to an Israeli offensive which has killed more than 300 civilians and done damage worth billions of dollars, the United States has helped stir up hatred and extremism in a troubled region, they say.

Rice said that on her trip to the Middle East, which began on Monday, she would not try to restore the status quo which existed before a Hizbollah raid into Israel this month.

"What we're seeing here, in a sense, is ... the birth pangs of a new Middle East and, whatever we do, we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one," she added.

Maher, who was also ambassador to Washington for many years, said: "In fact what the United States wants to have is a tame Middle East. That's what they call a new Middle East."

Mohamed el-Sayed Said, a political analyst who worked in Washington and takes part in "civil society" meetings with visiting U.S. officials, said he was shocked by the latest twist in U.S. policy towards the region.

NEOCONSERVATIVES

"What kind of Middle East will be born from this destruction? The only new thing we can get is new determination on the part of Hizbollah or the people of Lebanon to resist Israel and cause it as much pain as possible," he said.

The Arab analysts drew parallels with the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the U.S. refusal to back an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, which they said amounted to endorsement of Israel's bombing campaign.

Both policies are associated with the neoconservative school of thought in Washington, which holds that Israel is a natural ally of the United States and that preemptive force must be used to defeat threats in the early stages.

Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, an expert on Iraq and Shi'a Islam, said the administration wanted to use the Israeli offensive against Hizbollah "as a wedge to convince Syria to give up rejectionism and detach itself from Iran".

But he added: "Syria is not going to give up its stance toward Israel unless it at the very least gets back the occupied Golan Heights."

Hesham Youssef, a close aide to Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, said U.S. policy on the Lebanese violence was incoherent because it could not serve U.S. interests.

"I don't see where the benefit is for the United States, or even to Israel, because Israel has succeeded in creating a whole generation, if not more, of people who would continue to hate Israel much more than they can imagine," he told Reuters.

Said, who is also deputy director of the Ahram Centre for Strategic and Political Studies, said it was out of the question that Hizbollah would go along with the U.S. proposals.

"Why should they accept such a silly thing? They don't have internal pressure inside Lebanon to accept this ... They still have an enormous fighting capability," he said.

Emad Gad, an analyst who specialises in the Arab-Israeli conflict at the Al-Ahram Center, said he took the new Middle East to be a retreat from the democratic Middle East Washington said it wanted to a reliance on traditional allied Arab governments.

"That's because the (old plan) brought Hamas in Palestine, brought a large percentage for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The peoples in the Arab world now are more radical and more hostile to U.S. policies than the regimes," he said.

Yadlin noted that Syria, together with Iran, was Hezbollah's main weapons supplier during the past years. The missiles that killed Israelis in Haifa came from the Syrian military.

The Military Intelligence chief rejected assertions that the IDF was surprised by Hezbollah's level of preparedness in south Lebanon.

"There was no element of surprise in Hezbollah's deployment," Yadlin said. "During the past year, we passed intelligence assessments on to the decision-making level, including comprehensive information on long-range missiles supplied to Hezbollah."

Committee Chairman MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima) supported Yadlin's assertions and said he was "insulted" during the past several days by media reports indicating Israel was surprised by Hezbollah.