Pax Christi USA endorses statement opposing $210 million purchase of cluster bombs

Pax Christi USA has joined dozens of other human rights organizations, anti-war groups, and Christian churches in urging the US government to cancel a $210 million purchase of next-generation cluster munitions from Tomer, an Israeli state-owned company, citing the “severe, foreseeable dangers” these weapons pose to civilians.

The purchase, first reported by the Intercept earlier this month, represents the latest step in the unraveling of an international consensus against the use or stockpiling of cluster munitions. Years of advocacy, fueled by research showing the long-term dangers of unexploded bomblets left behind after conflict, culminated in the widespread adoption of an anti-cluster munitions treaty in 2010 [which the US has not signed].

New US cluster bombs pose ‘severe, foreseeable dangers,’ Responsible Statecraft, February 18, 2026

Read the statement in its entirety below:

We write in opposition to the United States’ reported $210 million purchase of cluster munitions from Tomer, a company owned by the Israeli government. When used in populated areas, cluster munitions violate international humanitarian law because they cannot distinguish between civilians and combatants. This acquisition runs counter to the international norm established in the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which recognizes the unacceptable risk cluster munitions pose to civilians and imposes a categorical ban on their sale, use, transfer, and stockpiling. More than 100 states have ratified the treaty. The United States should join them, but instead, its decision to expand its cluster munitions arsenal puts it dramatically out of step with civilian protection practices and the international consensus against these weapons.

Cluster munitions inherently present severe, foreseeable dangers to civilians, and are accordingly among the most harmful weapons types for civilians. Civilians accounted for 93 percent of casualties from cluster munitions in 2023, where the status was recorded. Cluster munitions disperse submunitions across broad areas, making it exceedingly difficult to confine their impact to lawful military targets. Cluster munitions used in areas populated by civilians typically violate international humanitarian law due to their indiscriminate, wide-area scope.

Many submunitions also fail to detonate on impact, leaving behind unstable, unexploded ordnance that can contaminate communities and disproportionately harm civilians—especially children—long after hostilities cease. In 2022, 71 percent of recorded casualties from cluster munition remnants were children.

The cluster munitions that the US military has purchased contain nine submunitions each, which in turn have approximately 1,200 tungsten fragments. While it is unknown if this exact model has been used in Gaza, similar models have resulted in grievous civilian harm, with children disproportionately losing their lives or limbs as a result.

This newly reported purchase raises serious concern that the US intends to renew its transfers or use of cluster munitions, continuing backsliding that began with US transfers to Ukraine in 2023 after Russia’s full-scale invasion. The United States has not used cluster munitions in its own military operations since 2009, and a longstanding US law prohibits US transfers of cluster munitions abroad. With growing recognition of cluster munitions’ catastrophic consequences for civilians, no US company has produced these weapons in a decade. Cluster munitions are recognized as a relic of the Cold War particularly given the availability of more reliable, precise weapons.

Recognizing the harms of cluster munitions to civilians, 111 states—including most NATO members—have prohibited cluster munitions pursuant to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. We urge the United States to align itself with international consensus and refrain from the sale, use, transfer, and stockpiling of these weapons. Doing so would also be consistent with the United States’ endorsement of the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA).

Use this link to Win Without War to take action — tell Congress to block this purchase by the Pentagon

We urge members of Congress to take immediate action to oppose this purchase and prevent the transfer of cluster munitions, which pose well-documented and lasting risks to civilian populations.

Signed: