The use of cluster munitions during the 2026 Iran war has been documented primarily in Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel after the war began on February 28, 2026. Human Rights Watch said that Iran repeatedly used cluster munitions in attacks on populated areas in Israel and verified three such attacks between March 4 and March 18, while its review of open-source material suggested that there were likely eight separate incidents between March 1 and March 20. At least four civilians were reported killed in cluster-munition strikes documented by the group. Iran also accused the US and Israel of employing cluster munitions in their attacks in Iran during the war.

Background

Cluster munitions are weapons delivered by aircraft, rockets, missiles or artillery that open in flight and scatter many smaller explosive submunitions over a broad area. Because a portion of the bomblets fail to explode on impact, they can threaten civilians long after the original strike.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force in 2010, prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions for its states parties. Neither Iran nor Israel is party to the convention, and the United States has also not acceded to it.

Use by Iran

After the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, 2026, Iranian retaliatory missile strikes on Israel included cluster-munition warheads.

On March 4, the first confirmed incident occurred in Or Yehuda, when a submunition struck a commercial area. A second confirmed attack on March 9 affected Yehud, Or Yehuda, Bat Yam and Holon; according to Human Rights Watch, the apparent submunitions likely came from a single ballistic missile and landed across sites up to apart. Two construction workers were killed in Yehud and at least one other person was seriously injured in Or Yehuda.

On March 18, a third cluster-munition attack in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, including impacts in Ramat Gan, Petah Tikva and Bnei Brak. In Ramat Gan, a man and woman in their 70s were killed when a submunition struck their apartment building. In another barrage of Iranian cluster bomb attacks, a foreign worker from Thailand at Moshav Adanim was killed by shrapnel from a missile while a group of three women at a beauty salon in the West Bank village of Beit Awwa, near Hebron, were killed when they were struck by debris from a cluster munition."Foreign worker killed in Israel after Iranian missile attack, ambulance authority says", Reuters, March 18, 2026. Accessed March 18, 2026. "A foreign worker was pronounced dead in central Israel's Moshav Adanim after an ⁠Iranian missile attack, Israel's ambulance service said early on Thursday."Fabian, Emanuel. "Iranian cluster bombs kill foreign worker in Israel, 3 Palestinian women in West Bank", The Times of Israel, March 18, 2026. Accessed March 19, 2026. "According to footage of one of the impacts there, the missile that killed the foreign worker had carried a cluster bomb. The 30-year-old man sustained critical injuries from shrapnel in Moshav Adanim and was declared dead a short while later, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said. He was not immediately named. In the Hebron-area village of Beit Awwa, an apparent cluster munition killed three women and wounded 13 people, two of them critically, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said."Tian, Yang. "Three Palestinian women killed as missile debris hits West Bank beauty salon", BBC, March 19, 2026. Accessed March 19, 2026. "At least three Palestinian women have been killed and eight more injured after missile debris hit a beauty salon in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says. The PRCS said shrapnel hit the site in the town of Beit Awwa, near Hebron, in the southern West Bank. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said fragments reportedly landed on a metal caravan used as a salon as well as several other locations in the West Bank. A Thai worker was also killed from shrapnel which hit a farming community in Israel, Israeli medics said."

An Iranian missile attack on March 28 killed a civilian at a residential building Tel Aviv who was guarding an area in which there had been a fatal missile attack earlier in the war and was struck by a cluster munition while in an unprotected area.Fabia, Emanuel. "One killed, several wounded in Iranian ballistic missile attack on central Israel", The Times of Israel, March 28, 2026. Accessed March 28, 2026. "A man was killed and several others were wounded by an Iranian ballistic missile fired at central Israel late Friday, the sixth attack that Iran launched on the country throughout the day. The missile carried a cluster bomb warhead, spreading bomblets over a wide area. A bomblet impact in Tel Aviv killed a 52-year-old security guard who was not in a bomb shelter at the time."

Reception Human Rights Watch said Iran's repeated use of cluster munitions in populated parts of Israel violated the laws of war and may amount to war crimes. Amnesty International likewise described cluster munitions as inherently indiscriminate and said their use in attacks on civilian areas violated international humanitarian law.

See also Cluster munition Convention on Cluster Munitions 2026 Iran war

References