According to a report by Human Rights Watch, one Israeli civilian was killed and a dozen injured by bombardments from Hezbollah gunners who rained cluster rockets down on villages near the port city of Haifa.

The weapon used was the Chinese-made Type-81 122mm rocket. Each rocket carries 39 bomblets which are packed with hundreds of steel ball-bearings and can kill and maim over a wide area. The rockets are believed to have been supplied to Hezbollah by either Syria or Iran. The Israeli police believe that 113 of the projectiles landed in northern Israel during the war.

Israel’s use of cluster bombs is well documented and has been heavily criticised by governments and human rights groups. In the closing days of the war the Israelis were accused of carpeting areas of southern Lebanon with one million bomblets. Many of them failed to explode and 20 people have since been killed when they accidentally detonated the munitions. British bomb disposal experts believe it will take more than a year to clear the estimated 770 sites hit by the Israeli barrage.

“We are disturbed to discover that not only Israel but also Hezbollah used cluster munitions in their recent conflict, at a time when many countries are turning away from this kind of weapon precisely because of its impact on civilians,” said Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division. “Use of cluster munitions is never justified in civilian-populated areas because they are inaccurate and unreliable.”

The area worst hit by Hezbollah was the Druze village of Maghar, near the Sea of Galilee. On the afternoon July 25 a dozen cluster rockets landed in and around the village killing a teenage girl. According to Jihad Ghanem one exploded between three homes belonging to his family, injuring his son Rami, 8, his brother Ziad, 35 an his sister Suha, 33.

Next month several countries, led by Sweden, are expected to press for a ban on the use of cluster bombs at the Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons meeting in Geneva.

Although the weapons were designed to be used against massed infantry and armour, in Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Afghanistan and now Israel they have been dropped on mainly civilian areas.

Britain, America, China and Russia are likely to oppose any restrictions on the use of cluster weapons. Lord Triesman of Tottenham, the junior Foreign Office minister, said earlier this month said that cluster bombs were “legitimate weapons”.

“They provide a unique capability against certain dispersed and wide-area military targets, for which other munitions are not necessarily practical,” he told the Lords last week.

Times Recommends

• Experts baffled by vanishing sea lions
• CIA caught in a dirty and secretive war
• Double life of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab