According to initial IDF investigations, last Friday night’s missile attack contained cluster munitions, which are a weapon banned by 100 countries. This is the first time that the Houthis fired cluster bombs on Israel.
By Rachel Avraham
The Jerusalem Post revealed that an IDF investigation on Sunday uncovered that the Houthis utilized cluster munitions during their Friday night missile attack on Central Israel. According to the report, this is the first time that the Houthis fired cluster munitions at Israel. Previously, only the Iranian regime utilized cluster munitions on Israel during the 12-day war and no other enemy of Israel utilized cluster munitions against the Jewish state.
Shortly after the missile launch, Arutz Sheva reported that senior Houthi terror official Nasser al-Din A’mer published a video in which he wrote that “this is a historic moment in which a Yemeni missile split up into several missiles over Israel.” In another post, the senior Houthi terror official wrote: “Two clips clearly demonstrate the missile reaching its target, disproving the enemy’s claims of interception. The truth is that the difficulty lay in the failure of all defense systems and multiple layers.”
According to the Times of Israel, the military says that the failure to intercept the projectile is under investigation and is unrelated to the type of warhead the missile was carrying. “The air defense systems, with an emphasis on the upper layer, are capable of dealing with and intercepting such missiles, as they have intercepted in the past,” the IDF told the Times of Israel.
According to the IDF, the fact that Israel failed to shoot down the missile last Friday night was due to some other still unidentified human or technical failure and not due to the missile including cluster munitions, the Jerusalem Post reported. However, according to the report, it is possible that given a ballistic missile with cluster munitions’ ability to break up into pieces, there are some instances where the IDF would need to shoot it down at an earlier point to avoid its break-up point being able to impact Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Arrow 2 and 3 used to shoot down such missiles do have the capacity to strike missiles at different and earlier points where necessary, but sometimes a first interceptor misses and with a classic ballistic missile, shooting it down with a later second interceptor will have the same outcome, whereas with cluster munitions, this may sometimes be too late.
The BBC reported that cluster munitions are banned by 100 countries. According to the report, cluster munitions are a method of dispersing large numbers of tiny bomblets from a rocket, missile or artillery shell that scatters them in mid-flight over a wide area. The BBC reported that they are intended to explode on impact but a significant proportion are “duds”, meaning they do not explode initially. According to the report, this happens especially if they land on wet or soft ground. The BBC reported that they can then explode at a later date on being picked up or trodden on, killing or maiming the victim.
Arutz Sheva reported that the missile set off sirens in several locations in central Israel, and there was an impact in the yard of 85-year-old Ilana Hatumi, from Moshav Ginaton near Lod. She recounted: “I was sitting in the shelter, I heard a boom, everything exploded. That’s it.” She added optimistically, “The windows are gone. We’re fine, I’m healthy. Nothing happened, you can fix everything, it’s only material damage.”
The BBC reported that Israel retaliated after the Houthis fired cluster munitions at the Jewish state. “Anyone who attacks us – we attack them. Anyone planning to attack us – we attack them. I believe the entire region is learning the power and determination of the State of Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated afterwards.
Photo from Times Of India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sapnvXnI16o
