Lebanese hunter injured in blast blamed on IDF

A blast near Sidon that wounded a Lebanese hunter, and killed his dog, was blamed Thursday on an Israeli ordnance leftover from the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

According to The Daily Star Lebanon, Hasan Abbas Hamieh was out hunting with his dog near the village of Kfar Hatta in southern Lebanon on Wednesday when his dog stepped on a bomb, setting it off.

Lebanese sources told the paper the ordnance was likely an unexploded cluster bomb that had been dropped by the IAF during the month-long conflict with Hezbollah.

The dog was killed by the blast and Hamieh was hospitalized in Sidon in serious condition.

Cluster munitions work by dropping hundreds of small bomblets that rain down on the target area. However, the devices can be unreliable, failing to explode during the initial attack and instead presenting a lingering hazard.

Israel was said to have dropped hundreds of cluster bombs on southern Lebanon during the 2006 engagement, targeting Hezbollah bases.

In August an 18-year-old shepherd was killed in southern Lebanon after stepping on what was said to be an Israeli cluster bomb, Lebanese media claimed at the time.

The shepherd, Hisham Abdel-Al, was reportedly working on a farm in the southern Lebanese village of Hallat when he accidentally stepped on the bomb and was killed on the spot.

Israel is not a signatory to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits use of the bombs.