Over the last several weeks, Iran has begun habitually firing missiles containing cluster munitions at Israel, raining dozens of small bomblets over urban areas and sowing chaos and destruction.

The submunitions, which can challenge air defenses, lack the explosive power of conventional warheads, but still pack a punch strong enough to destroy small buildings, flip cars, and maim or kill those in their way.

Though directed at Israel, the deadliest such attack has not been suffered by Israelis, but by West Bank Palestinians, who often find themselves in the path of Iran’s imprecise weaponry and without the protections Israel affords its citizens.

On March 18, four women ranging in age from 17 to 50 were killed when an Iranian cluster bomb slammed into a West Bank salon where they had been preparing a Ramadan break-fast meal. Nine other Palestinians were wounded in the strike, including a 4-year-old girl.

The incident shook the town of Beit Awwa in the southern West Bank, home to around 15,000 residents. More broadly, it exposed what locals describe as a lack of protective infrastructure and awareness among Palestinians in the West Bank regarding the threat of Iranian missile fire.

While Israelis receive warnings of incoming missiles to their phones and have community-wide sirens telling them to head to a protected space or seek cover, Palestinians have no such system and uneven access to the alerts sent by Israel’s Home Front Command. Most only learn of the danger by hearing the wailing of air raid sirens emanating from nearby settlements.

But even when they are warned, the bigger problem is finding somewhere to shelter from the incoming fire.

“We hear the sirens from the nearby settlements, but there are no shelters,” said Mahmoud Barhoum, mayor of the West Bank town of Beita, which was struck by missile fragments last week. “Where are people supposed to go?”

A resident of Beit Awwa told The Times of Israel that those in the Hebron area town also hear the air raid sirens from nearby Israeli settlements. But even so, many still do not know how to respond or how best to protect themselves.

According to the resident, who asked not to be named, Palestinians are also largely unaware of the danger posed by munitions even after they impact. Following the deadly cluster bomb attack, well-meaning residents gathered at the site, unaware of the dangers that could still be posed by unexploded ordnance, the resident recalled.

“My sister, who works with the Red Crescent, and I went there to move people away, so that nothing would happen if there was an explosion from parts that had not detonated when the missile hit. But no one was aware of the danger,” she said.

When Iran launches missiles at Israel, the IDF’s Home Front Command sends early warnings to a wide area where sirens could sound in a few minutes, and once the projectile nears, it activates sirens in any area determined to be at risk of getting hit by a missile, interceptor, or fragments from either.

In addition to sounding the early........

© The Times of Israel