Tel Aviv / Tehran — A fresh wave of Iranian missile and drone attacks has shaken Israel, but it’s an IDF bombshell that is now electrifying global opinion: Israeli officials claim Tehran has begun using cluster munitions in its strikes, scattering deadly bomblets across civilian areas and pushing the war into an even darker phase.

According to the IDF, debris from recent impacts near Ashkelon, Beersheba and the outskirts of Tel Aviv shows “clear signatures” of cluster warheads — canisters that burst mid‑air and spray dozens of smaller explosives over wide zones. Footage from impact sites shows pockmarked streets, shredded vehicles and unexploded submunitions cordoned off by bomb‑disposal teams as residents are warned to stay indoors.

In a late‑night briefing, an Israeli military spokesman accused Iran of “importing the Syrian and Ukrainian battlefields into Israeli neighborhoods,” calling the alleged use of cluster weapons “a deliberate strategy to terrorize civilians and paralyze daily life.” Israel has promised to present fragments, satellite imagery and medical evidence to the UN and key foreign capitals within days.

Tehran dismisses the accusations as “Zionist theater,” insisting its missiles carry only “conventional, precision warheads” and blaming the pattern of damage on Israeli air‑defence intercepts. But human‑rights groups are already demanding independent verification, warning that cluster munitions leave behind a lethal legacy of unexploded bomblets that can kill for years.

As air‑raid sirens continue to sound and both sides trade denials and evidence, one thing is certain: if Iran is proven to be raining cluster bombs on Israel, the diplomatic and moral stakes of this war will explode far beyond the battlefield.