SCRIPT
Across this devastated landscape the guns have fallen silent - at least for now. but a menace still lurks in southern Lebanon - one which is causing new casualties, almost daily.
(BOMB explosion)
The valleys now echo to these booms - from detonations of unexploded submunitions. With some haste teams like this one are being trained to dig up and dispose of a particularly hazardous munition - cluster bombs.
The United Nations, estimates that Israel fired 4 million munitions during the war and says that 90% of the cluster submunitons were dropped during last 72 hours of the conflict.
Their actions have provoked international outrage - and now this Israeli reserve soldier has joined the chorus of disapproval as demands for a worldwide ban grow louder.
Speaking on condition of anonymity he says he only ever imagined such a weapon would be use in a full scale war.
SOT
Everyone one was surprised that they (the clusters) were being deployed. we had always been trained to think, that this is doomsday device, this was for the big war with Syria, this is a weapon of massive war - only to be used when you are in a war with an army.
Soldier E says his unit fired about 1.2 million cluster bomblets, even though they had neither previously test fired the weapon, nor were certain what its impact might be.
2.35
"we were firing an untested weapon. When we started shooting it they told us 'wow it hits great you're right on the point' and after a few times they told is "well actually we don't know what it does. We've never seen it hit anything we don't know where it landed or what happened, it just disappeared.the army zig zagged between it really hits great, to we have no clue what the hell happened.
Soldier E. claims they were deliberately misled about their targets - often being told by their commanders that they were firing into unpopulated areas, including locations described by the army as "nature reserves".
Inigo: Do you believe that you were firing at an
unpopulated areas?
SOT SOLDIER E...
There's no such thing as an unpopulated area. Its just not so densely populated, perhaps?
INIGO: So did you believe what you were being told by your own commanders?
No, never. You can quote that. I never believed anything that was officially IDF policy.
In a statement to More 4 news the ISRAELi military rejected the allegations that its commanders may have misled their men.
While cluster bombs are not banned weapons - international law prohibits their use in and around civilian areas. The Israeli army said they always made efforts to avoid civilian areas and only targetted residential neighbourhoods from which
hezbollah guerillas were launching missiles - and even then only after issuing warnings.
TONY THOMPSON
TEAM MANAGER< ARMOUR GROUP.......
SOT.......
Theres lots of greenery around here, banana plantations, olive groves....they are in trees, they are inside the banana Plantations, in banana plants, theyre on the roofs of houses .they're everywhere..."
''''they are very unstable and all these are fragmentations and shaped charge. They kill as simple as that...''''
We were shown pictures of the israeli clusters, which have eye catching ribbons - making them attractive to vulnerable young children
MARK FITZPATRICK
Its shiny and attractive, so people go and pick it up to have a look. Ones you can neutralize, so you can remove them, but the Israeli and Chinese ones you cant.
Mine clearance teams here are finding a very high rate of duds - bombs that fail to detonate on impact and are still at risk of exploding. Instead of the expected 10 %failure rate - experts suggest the failure rate of Israeli submunitions are anywhere between 30 and 40%
A large charge of semtex is the only way to neutralise these Israeli made bombs...
Piece to camera
(INIGO GILMORE)
The team has just found two cluster bombs in this olive orchard during a random search of this area. They are thousands of these bomblets in olive orchards and fields all over this area,scattered over many miles. And they're having a devastating impact...
11 year old Hassan de Hineai was luckier than some.
"We found the bomb when I was playing in an olive grove with my friends he says and when it exploded my stomach came open and I was holding my intensines. My stomach is still painful and I cant sleep at night."
His mother says the olive-picking season is just getting under way but they're afraid to go out and harvest the crop.
At another house in the village, where we learnt that his young girl was also injured by a cluster bomb, her mother resists questions about where Hezbollah fired rockets from.
Officials from Human Rights Watch have documented how Hezbollah also fired around 100 Chinese-made cluster bombs into northern israel. While the figure represents a fraction of Israel's payload, campaigners say the group's use of the bombs is another reason to rid the region, indeed the world of such weapons.
SOT LUCY MAIR
(talks about ...)
Weve called on countries whose stockpile munitions, which have a very high dud or failure rate, to destroy their stockpiles and to cease transferring these weapons and I certainly think that the moment is ripe, theres tremendous amount of international concern and certainly the evolving international norm is away from the use of this inaccurate and dangerous weapon.
Israel has cited American and British use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq in its defence. Arguing that it has been singled out for criticism. Campaigners pressing for a ban on cluster bombs know its too late for the casualties of this war, but it might yet save some innocent civilians, come the next one.
Inigo Gilmore, More 4 news,in southern lebanon
Across this devastated landscape the guns have fallen silent - at least for now. but a menace still lurks in southern Lebanon - one which is causing new casualties, almost daily.
(BOMB explosion)
The valleys now echo to these booms - from detonations of unexploded submunitions. With some haste teams like this one are being trained to dig up and dispose of a particularly hazardous munition - cluster bombs.
The United Nations, estimates that Israel fired 4 million munitions during the war and says that 90% of the cluster submunitons were dropped during last 72 hours of the conflict.
Their actions have provoked international outrage - and now this Israeli reserve soldier has joined the chorus of disapproval as demands for a worldwide ban grow louder.
Speaking on condition of anonymity he says he only ever imagined such a weapon would be use in a full scale war.
SOT
Everyone one was surprised that they (the clusters) were being deployed. we had always been trained to think, that this is doomsday device, this was for the big war with Syria, this is a weapon of massive war - only to be used when you are in a war with an army.
Soldier E says his unit fired about 1.2 million cluster bomblets, even though they had neither previously test fired the weapon, nor were certain what its impact might be.
2.35
"we were firing an untested weapon. When we started shooting it they told us 'wow it hits great you're right on the point' and after a few times they told is "well actually we don't know what it does. We've never seen it hit anything we don't know where it landed or what happened, it just disappeared.the army zig zagged between it really hits great, to we have no clue what the hell happened.
Soldier E. claims they were deliberately misled about their targets - often being told by their commanders that they were firing into unpopulated areas, including locations described by the army as "nature reserves".
Inigo: Do you believe that you were firing at an
unpopulated areas?
SOT SOLDIER E...
There's no such thing as an unpopulated area. Its just not so densely populated, perhaps?
INIGO: So did you believe what you were being told by your own commanders?
No, never. You can quote that. I never believed anything that was officially IDF policy.
In a statement to More 4 news the ISRAELi military rejected the allegations that its commanders may have misled their men.
While cluster bombs are not banned weapons - international law prohibits their use in and around civilian areas. The Israeli army said they always made efforts to avoid civilian areas and only targetted residential neighbourhoods from which
hezbollah guerillas were launching missiles - and even then only after issuing warnings.
TONY THOMPSON
TEAM MANAGER< ARMOUR GROUP.......
SOT.......
Theres lots of greenery around here, banana plantations, olive groves....they are in trees, they are inside the banana Plantations, in banana plants, theyre on the roofs of houses .they're everywhere..."
''''they are very unstable and all these are fragmentations and shaped charge. They kill as simple as that...''''
We were shown pictures of the israeli clusters, which have eye catching ribbons - making them attractive to vulnerable young children
MARK FITZPATRICK
Its shiny and attractive, so people go and pick it up to have a look. Ones you can neutralize, so you can remove them, but the Israeli and Chinese ones you cant.
Mine clearance teams here are finding a very high rate of duds - bombs that fail to detonate on impact and are still at risk of exploding. Instead of the expected 10 %failure rate - experts suggest the failure rate of Israeli submunitions are anywhere between 30 and 40%
A large charge of semtex is the only way to neutralise these Israeli made bombs...
Piece to camera
(INIGO GILMORE)
The team has just found two cluster bombs in this olive orchard during a random search of this area. They are thousands of these bomblets in olive orchards and fields all over this area,scattered over many miles. And they're having a devastating impact...
11 year old Hassan de Hineai was luckier than some.
"We found the bomb when I was playing in an olive grove with my friends he says and when it exploded my stomach came open and I was holding my intensines. My stomach is still painful and I cant sleep at night."
His mother says the olive-picking season is just getting under way but they're afraid to go out and harvest the crop.
At another house in the village, where we learnt that his young girl was also injured by a cluster bomb, her mother resists questions about where Hezbollah fired rockets from.
Officials from Human Rights Watch have documented how Hezbollah also fired around 100 Chinese-made cluster bombs into northern israel. While the figure represents a fraction of Israel's payload, campaigners say the group's use of the bombs is another reason to rid the region, indeed the world of such weapons.
SOT LUCY MAIR
(talks about ...)
Weve called on countries whose stockpile munitions, which have a very high dud or failure rate, to destroy their stockpiles and to cease transferring these weapons and I certainly think that the moment is ripe, theres tremendous amount of international concern and certainly the evolving international norm is away from the use of this inaccurate and dangerous weapon.
Israel has cited American and British use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq in its defence. Arguing that it has been singled out for criticism. Campaigners pressing for a ban on cluster bombs know its too late for the casualties of this war, but it might yet save some innocent civilians, come the next one.
Inigo Gilmore, More 4 news,in southern lebanon