Lebanon Brothers Wounded By Cluster Bomb
Two young Lebanese brothers were injured by a cluster bomb on Wednesday, the 60th anniversary of the Geneva conventions on conflict, the Cluster Munitions Coalition said.
Abbas Awali, 13, and Hussein Awali, 10, were gathering wood when they were hit by the blast in the southern village of Tulin, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Israeli border, the London-based organization said.
"This makes the remembrance of the victims even more sad and relevant — all that on the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions," CMC communications officer Jean-Marc Jacobs told Agence France Presse (AFP).
The 1949 treaties formally outlined international law on the protection of civilians, detainees, and the wounded and humanitarian workers in conflicts.
In May, Israel gave U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon maps showing the location of over one million cluster munitions it dropped during its devastating air war on Lebanon three summers ago.
Around 40 percent of the bomb-lets failed to detonate on impact, according to the United Nations.
About 300 Lebanese civilians have since been killed or maimed by cluster bombs, according to the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center. Children, who mistake the bomb-lets for toys, account for most of the victims.
Cluster munitions spread bomb-lets over a wide area from a single device. The bomb-lets that do not explode on impact can do so later at the slightest touch, making them deadly as anti-personnel landmines.