(From the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law)

The petitioners, an Israeli NGO, challenged the legality of the use of flechette ammunition by the IDF in its military operations in the Gaza Strip (flechette shells contain thousands of metal arrows, and explode before impact with their target – spreading their lethal content over wide areas). According to the petitioners, the use of flechettes was inherently indiscriminate and also entailed unnecessary suffering and should therefore be banned. In addition, they said the use of flechette ammunition in the densely populated Gaza Strip was disproportionate and indiscriminate, as demonstrated by several incidents in which the use of flechettes had resulted in civilian casualties. The Court accepted the State’s position that international law did not prohibit the use of flechettes, noting in particular that they were not banned by the Conventional Weapons Convention to which Israel is a party. Further the Court noted with approval the IDF guidelines on the use of flechettes, which restricted their use to circumstances in which the risk of civilian casualties was minimal. While unfortunate accidents involving innocent civilians had taken place in the past, the Court was not convinced that resort to ordinary ammunition would have avoided the unintentional civilian casualties.The Court, however, found no grounds to intervene in the aforementioned guidelines.

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