[JURIST] Israel has denied using banned cluster munitions [FAS backgrounder; Cluster Munition Coalition advocacy website] in Lebanon. On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch accused Israel [HRW press release] of using the cluster grenades in an attack on a Hezbollah village in South Lebanon last week. Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Arkady Milman called told Russian media that "reports of the Israeli army using cluster munitions is an obvious propaganda of Hezbollah and other organizations who do not know what is actually going on", and he insisted that Israel is taking every precaution to avoid civilian casualties in the current Mideast conflict [JURIST news archive]. He added that Israeli forces drop leaflets into Lebanon several hours before Israel begins a bombing campaign over Lebanese territory.

Cluster munitions generally spread damage indiscriminately and many people consider the weapons illegal under multiple provisions of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions (1977) [text]. MosNews has more.