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Cluster bomb wounds two young siblings |
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The Daily Star - Lebanon, 13 Aug 2009.
Two young brothers were wounded by a cluster bomb Wednesday as Lebanon commemorated the final 48 hours of a 2006 war with Israel and the international community celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions on conflict.
Abbas Aawali, 13, and Hussein Aawali, 10, were gathering firewood when they were wounded in the southern village of Toulin near to the Israeli border.
“This makes the remembrance of the victims even more sad and relevant – all that on the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions,”said Jean Marc Jacobs from the Cluster Munition Coalition.
The 1949 treaties formally outlined international law on the protection of civilians, de-tainees, the wounded and humanitarian workers during conflict. Israel launched a 34-day war on Lebanon in July 2006 after Hizbullah took prisoner two army reservists. In the last 72 hours of fighting, Israel dropped over 4 million cluster bombs over south Lebanon, at a time when the Security Council had already adopted Resolution 1701 calling for the immediate cessation of hostilities. Around 40 percent of the bomblets failed to detonate, according to the UN, turning into de facto land mines. A total of 273 civilians and 57 deminers have since been killed or maimed by cluster bombs. Back |