A former head of the Rafael Israel Armaments Development Authority has disclosed that it developed and produced the controversial cluster bomb as early as 1970.
In a book he has just published on the work of the Authority from 1952 to 1968, when he headed Rafael, Munya Mardor writes that the need to produce such bombs in Israel arose during the war of attrition along the Suez Canal, when the U. S. refused to sell the weapons to Israel.
Cluster bombs contain a large number of small bombs which explode over a wide area and are used against troop concentrations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
