Lebanese children play with toys in the southern Lebanese village of Maraka. (Reuters)

NABATIYAH, Lebanon — Like losing their parents, relatives and friends in the bloody Israeli offensive was not enough, Lebanese children are cut into halves, suffering amputated limbs by cluster bombs Israel carpeted all over Lebanon.

"Hadi and Mussa were playing in a field outside when we heard a dull thud. When we got there, the boys were spread out on the ground, lifeless," mother Sanaa, from the southern town of Nabatiyah told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday, September 29.

The cluster bombs contain hundreds of small but lethal bomblets, which are dispersed over a large area. Those that do not explode on impact turn into lethal anti-personnel mines.

The UN children's fund (UNICEF) says one third of the casualties caused by cluster bombs since the ceasefire in the 34-day Israeli blitz have been children, who often mistake the lethal devices for toys.

Fourteen-year-old Hassan tells how half his foot was blasted away by one of the bomblets that Israel rained on south Lebanon.

"I ran across a small object hidden in the vegetation," the teenager says from his bed as he struggles to come to terms with how dramatically his life has been changed.

Other hospitals in the region, especially around the port town of Tyre, have reported similar casualty figures.

A 12-year-old child was killed and three others were wounded Wednesday, September 27, when they triggered a bomblet while playing in a field in the Marjayun area.

Israel launched its wide-scale offensive on July 12 on the claim of seeking the release of two soldiers taken prisoner by Hizbullah in a cross-border operation to exchange with Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.

Up to 1,200 Lebanese civilians, a third of whom were children, have been killed in the wide-scale blitz which left the country's infrastructure in tatters.

Growing Worse

Warnings are raised that the number of civilian victims to suffer from amputated limbs is yet to rise.

"The artificial limb technicians are going to have their work cut out for them in the weeks and months to come," said Nabatiyah hospital director Dr Ali Hajj Ali.

Ibrahim Naim, who runs Al-Abbas laboratory where artificial limbs are fitted, said his centre has received two to three new patients a day since the end of the blitz.

Artificial limbs, especially legs, are lined up against a wall at the centre which is run by a benevolent foundation funded by Hizbullah.

Another Hizbullah association has set up a rehabilitation centre for the disabled and their families, called Al-Fardous (paradise), in Dweir, near Nabatiyah.

Nidal Berjawi, a former Hizbullah fighter who lost a leg in action against Israel, runs the centre predicted that there will be more of war victims to come.

"We will have a lot of people coming here soon."

The head of the Israeli army's Rocket Unit revealed in a letter to Defense Minister Emir Peretz cited by the daily Haaretz on September 12 that the Israeli army has rained Lebanon with more than one million cluster bombs and used internationally banned weapons like phosphorous shells and imprecise weaponry during its 33-day war.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland in August said it was "completely immoral ... that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict" when it was clear a UN resolution was about to end it.

The US last month said it was investigating whether Israel broke secret agreements in its use of US-made cluster bombs in its Lebanon war.

But several current and former US officials described the probe as cosmetic to save face.