Amnesty International says Iranian missile attacks on Israeli civilians violated humanitarian law

An Amnesty International report published on Thursday concluded that the Iranian regime’s deliberate use of cluster bomb warheads against Israel last month, violated humanitarian law.

“Cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons that must never be used,” stated Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns. “Iranian forces’ deliberate use of such inherently indiscriminate weapons is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” she emphasized. Some 100 countries worldwide have already banned the use of cluster bombs due to the danger they pose to the civilian population.

The Amnesty International report criticizing Iran is noteworthy because the human rights organization has a history of hostility towards the Jewish state.

Iran fired over 500 ballistic missiles against largely Israeli civilian areas. At least 28 Israelis were killed, hundreds were injured and some 12,000 lost their homes as a result of Iran’s deliberate attacks on residential buildings in Israeli cities. Almost 100% of the Israeli victims were civilians including women and elderly.

By contrast, Israel mainly focused on striking Iranian nuclear and military assets during its Operation Rising Lion. Israel also issued evacuation instructions to the Iranian public in cases where the Iranian military targets were located adjacent to civilian areas.

During last month’s Iran Israel war, one Iranian missile hit the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, severely damaging the Israeli hospital. Israeli President Isaac Herzog who visited the damaged hospital, condemned the Iranian's deliberate attack on Israeli civilian patients.

"We see the face of evil and terror spread by the Ayatollahs in Tehran, and at the same time we see the resilience and strength of Israeli society, united in our desire to see all the peoples of this region live in peace,” Herzog stated.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar echoed similar sentiments.

“This is exactly the place where the Iranian regime targeted – a civilian hospital. This is clearly a war crime. It reflects the Iranian regime's consistent strategy, they are deliberately targeting civilian population, civilian targets, civilians, children, elderly people. It is unacceptable,” Sa’ar said.

The hospital’s officials have estimated that it could take up to a year before the severely damaged hospital operates normally again.

Miraculously no patients were injured in the Iranian attack because the impacted hospital ward had been evacuated 24 hours ahead of the missile assault.

In late June, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt personally inspected the devastation caused by Iranian missiles in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam.

"Anyone who sees what the Iranians did to civilians here should fear what they could do with a nuclear bomb. We are 100% behind Israel’s actions in recent days, including the strike on nuclear sites,” Dobrindt stated while being accompanied by the Israeli foreign minister.

"There is no justification for attacks on a civilian population, as occurred here," the German minister continued.

He emphasized that the international community must prevent the Iranian ayatollah regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“The nuclear threat is not only a danger to Israel but to all of Europe. Israel, Germany, and the United States will not accept a nuclear-armed Iran.”