Israel says Iran is firing cluster warheads aimed at civilians

TEHRAN – Half of the Iranian missiles fired at Israel in this war spray numerous small explosives over their targets, expanding the radius of possible damage and casualties, though presenting less of a direct danger than traditional warheads, according to the Israeli military.

The spread of cluster-munition strikes has prompted some experts to suggest Tehran is trying to keep up a rate of fire and signal defiance in the face of its US and Israeli foes, even as its capabilities are stretched. 

Each submunition, or bomblet, is roughly the size and weight of a thermos flask. Two dozen are packed into a warhead and scatter when it breaks up about 7km above the ground. That has lent a barrage effect to single missile launches by Iran, whose overall intensity has decreased over 13 days of fighting. 

A submunition killed two construction workers on March 9, the authorities said. Tumbling earthward on random trajectories to a radius of 10km, the bomblets evade Israel’s advanced interceptors while setting off sirens widely. Another worry for the police has been finding and dismantling duds before they can imperil passers-by.

The allegations underscore the war’s human toll, which has shaken financial markets and left thousands dead in its first two weeks. More than 2,500 people have been killed in Iran and Lebanon, including nearly 200 at a school in Iran’s Hormozgan province early in the conflict.

Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using white phosphorus in residential areas of Lebanon since it began striking Iran-aligned Hezbollah, calling the practice “unlawfully indiscriminate” under international humanitarian law.

“Iran appears to be launching them into relatively populated areas, probably with the goal of producing potential civilian harm,” said Mr Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.

Mr Ran Kochav, a retired Israeli air defence general, acknowledged the psychological impact of the submunitions, which resemble a comet shower in the night sky, on the public. But he argued that the devastation wreaked by traditional single-blast missile warheads, which carry as much as 450kg of explosives, is far worse. 

“From a military standpoint, if we have already failed to intercept the missile, it’s actually preferable that its warhead disperse rather than blow up on one target,” said Mr Kochav, who is now with the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Based on North Korean designs, the submunitions are meant to saturate a battlefield, said Mr Uzi Rubin, one of the architects of Israel’s missile defence. “They’re effective against soldiers out in the open, far less so against people who have taken shelter.”

Since the US-Israeli attack on Iran started on Feb 28, Iran has loosed hundreds of missiles and drones, including at neighbouring Gulf Arab countries. Of the several hundred missiles launched at it, Israel says half had cluster warheads, and most were shot down. Two that got through, with standard heavy warheads, killed 10 civilians.

By contrast, just a few of the Iranian missiles that reached Israel during their war of June 2025 carried cluster submunitions, according to Amnesty International. It accused Iran of violating international law through this use. 

Neither Iran nor Israel is among the more than 100 signatories of the Convention on Cluster Munitions banning the weapons. 

The Pentagon has reported a 90 per cent reduction in overall Iranian missile launches since the conflict erupted.

Mr Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said Iran’s use of cluster-munition warheads “might reflect which missiles remain or which bases are still able to operate. It’s possible that Iran is digging deeper in its stocks”.

Mr Kochav said these warheads weigh around 250kg – a relatively light payload that might be helping extend the ranges of Iran’s missile stocks.

Given its more than 1,700km distance from Iran, Israel has felt a greater drop-off in missile salvos than targeted Gulf Arab states have. Still, March 11 saw four back-to-back predawn volleys in the Tel Aviv area, sending hundreds of thousands of people staggering to bomb shelters.

According to Mr Kochav, that pattern of night-time fire suggested Iran’s 16 missile commands are operating chaotically, under the pressure and attrition of US and Israeli air strikes, rather than coordinating attacks throughout the day.

Messaging from Tehran is the opposite: that the missiles will keep coming, around the clock. BLOOMBERG