Organization: Clearing the Gaza Strip of explosives will take 30 years news

An official with the Humanity and Inclusion relief organization said that clearing Gaza of unexploded ordnance could take between 20 and 30 years, describing the Strip as an “open minefield.”

Nick Orr, the organization’s explosive ordnance removal expert, said, “Complete removal of the rubble will never happen, because it is underground. We will continue to find it for generations to come,” likening the situation to what British cities witnessed after World War II.

He added that removal from the surface of the Earth is something that can be achieved within a generation, “I think 20 to 30 years,” noting that this “will be a solution to a very small part of a very large problem.”

Orr, who visited Gaza several timesThis During the war, one of the organization’s seven-person team is scheduled to begin locating war remnants within basic infrastructure, such as hospitals and bakeries, next week.

But Orr explained that relief organizations, including his own, have not yet obtained comprehensive permission from Israel to begin removing or destroying munitions, or to import the necessary equipment for that.

Orr indicated that he is seeking a permit to import materials used to burn bombs instead of detonating them, in an attempt to allay fears that they could be reused by Hamas, according to what Reuters reported.

He also expressed his support for the formation of an interim force, similar to the one expected within the ceasefire plan, saying: “If Gaza has any future, there must be a security force that allows humanitarian workers to work.”

A United Nations database showed that more than 53 people were killed and hundreds injured as a result of the remnants of the two-year genocidal war in Gaza, while relief organizations believe that the real number may be much higher.

The ceasefire in the Strip raised hopes that the huge task of removing these wastes from among the millions of tons of rubble could begin.

The head of the United Nations Mine Action Service, Luke Irving, warned last week that the dangers of unexploded ordnance in the Gaza Strip are increasing after the ceasefire.

The UN official stressed that removing the munitions from Gaza will take a long time, but it is necessary to gradually return life to normal in the Strip emerging from a devastating two-year war.

For its part, the United Nations Mine Action Service indicated, in response to a question from Agence France-Presse, that the restrictions imposed during the past two years in the sector prevented the conduct of large-scale surveys.