Iran just turned Israeli neighborhoods into a minefield.
Now an Israeli security expert is calling it terrorism from inside his own bomb shelter near Tel Aviv.
And his warning to the Trump administration has everything to do with whether this war ends in victory or a repeat of the worst mistake America ever made.
Iran Is Firing Cluster Bombs at Israeli Civilians Every Day of Operation Epic Fury
Half the missiles Iran is now firing at Israel aren't regular ballistic missiles.
They're cluster munitions – weapons that split open at high altitude and scatter between 20 and 24 smaller bomblets across an area up to five miles wide.
Each bomblet carries 2.5 kilograms of explosives.
When they fall at night, they streak across the sky in burning fragments before dropping into apartment buildings, construction sites, and parking lots below.
Israel's Arrow system can intercept the parent missile – but if the warhead separates before the intercept, the bomblets are already loose.
Iron Dome isn't built for this problem.
It's designed for short-range rockets at low altitudes, not for dozens of small falling objects dispersing across miles of urban terrain.
Three Israeli civilians have already been killed.
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, told Fox News Digital what he thinks of Iran's targeting strategy – delivering that assessment while sitting in his own bomb shelter near Tel Aviv.
"The Iranian use of cluster missiles and the idea that they deliberately target civilians and civil facilities must be considered as a use of non-conventional weapons," Michael said, "and the American-Israeli response must be appropriate."
Non-conventional weapons.
That phrase carries weight from a man hiding underground while those weapons fall on his city.
The ban on cluster munitions has been signed by more than 120 nations under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Iran signed nothing.
Hezbollah Joined the Iran War and Is Now Coordinating Missile Strikes With Tehran
This isn't just an Iran problem anymore.
Hezbollah has fully entered the fight, and according to Michael, the coordination between Tehran and Beirut has become precise.
"Most of Hezbollah's rockets and drones are launched simultaneously with the Iranian missiles," he said.
This is a synchronized attrition campaign – designed to exhaust Israel's layered air defense network from two directions at once while cluster munitions do the ground-level damage that heavier missiles cannot.
The north of the country toward the Haifa area is under heavy bombing while Tel Aviv remains under emergency routine.
Hezbollah's elite Radwan fighters – who withdrew from the south under the 2024 ceasefire – are back at Khiyam, exactly where Israeli defense officials expect any ground invasion attempt to begin.
Hezbollah isn't rebuilding strength.
It's repositioning what's left of it to die fighting in south Lebanon and drain Israeli resources for as long as possible.
The Lebanese government itself declared Hezbollah's military activity illegal and ordered its army to arrest violators.
That order means nothing on the ground.
Why Trump Must Finish This and Not Repeat the Houthis Mistake
Here's where this stands on Day 11 of Operation Epic Fury – and why it should alarm every American watching.
Iran's ballistic missile attacks are down more than 90% since the opening of the campaign, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Drone attacks are down approximately 85%.
Trump told Fox News's Brian Kilmeade that the U.S. has sunk Iran's navy and destroyed all but 20% of its launchers.
That's a military achievement.
But Kobi Michael – the man in the bomb shelter – said something every American should hear before anyone in Washington starts talking about declaring victory and going home.
"We hope that President Trump will not stop or use the formula he used with the Houthis," he said – "declaring victory and leaving the wounded lion incapable of revenge and reconstituting itself."
The Houthis had their Iranian supply lines cut, their leadership degraded, their capabilities reduced – and within months they were operational again, attacking ships and threatening American sailors.
Iran armed them right back up.
If a wounded Hezbollah survives this war with its command structure intact, Tehran will reload them the same way.
Trump vowed this regime will never have a nuclear weapon.
Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, told Fox News that Iranian negotiators bragged they already had enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs – and were proud they'd hidden it from international inspectors.
A regime that brags about stockpiling the materials for 11 nuclear weapons doesn't stop because it's hurting.
It stops because it's finished.
Sources:
- Emma Bussey, "Hezbollah, Iran Unleash Coordinated Cluster Bomb Strikes on Israel in Major Escalation," Fox News, March 10, 2026.
- Melanie Lidman and Sam Metz, "Israel Says Iran Is Using Cluster Munitions. What to Know About the Weapons," Associated Press via Military.com, March 10, 2026.
- "Trump Encourages Iranians to Take Over Government While Announcing Iran Attack," Fox News, February 28, 2026.
- "LIVE UPDATES: Trump Reacts to Iran Picking Mojtaba Khamenei as New Supreme Leader," Fox News Digital, March 10, 2026.
- "Trump Defends War with Iran as Conflict Widens," CBS News, March 3, 2026.