Unexploded Israeli bombs and devices dropped during Israel’s war on Lebanon have killed dozens and injured hundreds more Lebanese civilians since the conflict ended.

The unexploded bombs, mostly sub munitions, landed indiscriminately in civilian areas, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said recently. The OCHA said it had recorded 608 areas where cluster munitions landed, “with more locations being identified every day”.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland in August said it was “completely immoral ... that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict.”

The Lebanese army says that there are “possibly around one million” unexploded bombs scattered around the south. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the Israeli army fired at least 1.2 million rockets into Lebanon during the conflict.

Chris Clark, head of a UN mine action group in southern Lebanon, said last month that tactical maps handed over by Israeli forces were “absolutely useless” in clearance efforts with regard to landmines that were placed by Israeli troops in the 1980s.

Lebanese school start dates were delayed, due to the ongoing repairs of damaged buildings and the government is struggling to return all schools before November.

The government estimates reconstruction costs to reach $70 million. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the UN children’s agency Unicef, have been helping in the rebuilding process and handing out books and school bags to children.