When the Israeli offensive ends, there will be some 37 million tonnes of debris in Gaza that needs to be removed, a top UN Mine Action Service officer stated on Friday.
Unexploded ordnance buried beneath the debris would also make that task more difficult, according to Pehr Lodhammar of UNMAS, who has overseen mining programs in nations like Iraq.
According to Lodhammar, it was hard to determine how much of the ammunition fired in Gaza was still live.
“We know that typically there is a failure rate of at least 10% of land service ammunition,” he told journalists in Geneva.
“What we do know is that we estimated 37 million tonnes of debris, which is approximately 300 kilos of debris per square metre,” he added.
According to him, it would take 14 years to remove 100 trucks, assuming that quantity is fictitious.
Speaking on Friday, Lodhammar announced the release of UNMAS’s 2023 annual report.
On October 7, the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas launched an unprecedented offensive on Israel, sparking the start of the Gaza War between Israel and Hamas.
1,170 Israelis lost their lives as a result of the strike, according to an AFP count based on government statistics.
According to the health ministry in the territory controlled by Hamas, Israel has killed at least 34,356 Palestinians since it began its military onslaught in Gaza, the majority of them were women and children. Israel had pledged to destroy Hamas.
