Direct proof of use
Iran used ballistic-missile cluster-munition warheads during the 2025 Israel-Iran Conflict. Amnesty International reported that Iranian forces fired ballistic missiles whose warheads contained submunitions into populated residential areas of Israel during the June 2025 fighting, and said its weapons experts identified an unexploded submunition apparently found in the Gush Dan metropolitan area on June 19.
Associated Press reporting from June 19 recorded Israel's Home Front Command assertion that one Iranian ballistic missile fired that morning carried fragmenting cluster munitions. The later AP explainer described Israel as saying Iran fired cluster munitions during the war and reported that the warheads opened at high altitude, scattering smaller bomblets over a broad area.
Sources: Amnesty 12 Day War Cluster Munitions, AP June 19 Cluster Munition Report, AP Israel Says Iran Using Cluster Munitions
Timeline
The first detailed public cluster-warhead claim in this record is tied to June 19, 2025, when Israeli authorities said an Iranian ballistic missile used a cluster-munition warhead over central Israel. Amnesty later reported that media accounts placed the Gush Dan incident on June 19 and that roughly 20 submunitions were reported across an estimated eight-kilometre radius.
Amnesty also documented follow-on impact patterns in Beersheba on June 20 and Rishon LeZion on June 22. In Beersheba, Amnesty said ordnance left multiple impact craters consistent with the Gush Dan submunitions and that submunitions hit a school and basketball court without reported deaths or injuries.
Sources: Amnesty 12 Day War Cluster Munitions, AP June 19 Cluster Munition Report
Role and evidence
The documented role was long-range area-effect attack: Iranian ballistic missiles carried payloads that opened in flight and dispersed submunitions rather than delivering a single unitary warhead. AP described the release altitude as roughly 7 to 10 kilometres and reported that the submunitions could scatter from several hundred metres to several kilometres.
The public evidence does not identify a specific missile model for every June 2025 cluster-warhead incident. Cluster Munition Monitor records Israel's claim that Iran used a ballistic missile equipped with a cluster-munition warhead on June 19 and notes that Israeli authorities distributed warnings and a photograph of an alleged unexploded submunition, while stating that the Monitor could not independently verify that particular attack.
That distinction separates documented use from broader production or possession. The longform record here treats the weapon as a cluster-munition warhead payload used by Iranian ballistic missiles in the June 2025 conflict, not as a claim that every Iranian ballistic missile launch carried cluster submunitions or that all incidents can be assigned to a named missile family.
Sources: AP Israel Says Iran Using Cluster Munitions, Cluster Munition Monitor Iran Profile, Amnesty 12 Day War Cluster Munitions
