Unexploded Israeli bombs haunt survivors of genocide

With extreme caution and limited resources, municipal and civil defense crews in the Gaza Strip face the daily challenge of removing massive amounts of rubble, amid fears of unexploded ordnance buried within the rubble.

Any mistake while removing concrete blocks or operating heavy machinery could kill dozens of survivors of the genocide, who have returned to their destroyed homes or are living in nearby tents.

Tickling Time Bombs
The United Nations estimates that there are more than 7,000 tons of unexploded ordnance, classified as “ticking time bombs,” buried within the rubble. These estimates are based on reports indicating that the Strip was exposed to more than 70,000 tons of explosives during the two-year war, approximately 10 percent of which failed to explode.

Major Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza told, “The issue of unexploded ordnance is one of the most significant challenges currently facing us.

It is impossible to begin removing rubble or initiating reconstruction until we ensure that the sites are free of explosives that threaten the lives of workers and residents.”

He added, “Many of these munitions are still buried under tons of concrete, requiring careful inspection before they can be extracted.

The occupation has also destroyed more than 134 heavy vehicles, representing approximately 85 percent of the equipment available before the war. Only about 20 vehicles remain in the Gaza Strip, most of which belong to contracting companies, and renting and insuring them requires significant sums of money.”

The United Nations says that addressing the issue of war remnants requires massive international efforts that are currently lacking in Gaza, given the presence of more than 55 million tons of rubble—equivalent to 13 times the size of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The estimated time required to remove these quantities and transport them to special quarries is between three and seven years, depending on the number of vehicles available for the work.