International expert: Clearing mines in Gaza may take 30 years news

Explosives clearance expert at Humanity and Inclusion, Nick Orr, said that removing mines and explosive materials from the Gaza Strip will take at least 20 to 30 years.

According to the explosives removal expert – in statements to Al Jazeera – the large scale of destruction in Gaza makes it difficult to extract munitions, and there is a need to obtain the equipment required to remove the remnants of explosive materials, but they cannot enter them.

He pointed out that the level of pollution in the Gaza Strip is very high due to mines, and that there is a need to provide safety measures but they also cannot do that.

The expert expressed his belief that removing mines in Gaza will take 20 to 30 years, unless there is a broad and rapid international engineering intervention. As for trying to search for materials that have not yet exploded, it may take a long time to complete it, describing the Gaza Strip as an “open minefield.”

Orr, who visited Gaza several times during the war, is part of a seven-person team affiliated with Humanity and Inclusion, which is scheduled to begin next week identifying the locations of war remnants within basic infrastructure, such as hospitals and bakeries.

Estimates of the Government Communications Office in the Gaza Strip indicate that there are more than 20,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance, at a rate of approximately 58 pieces per square kilometer, which is a record rate compared to other combat zones, according to the United Nations.

According to UN data, approximately 40% of the residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza are among the areas most contaminated with unexploded ordnance, where, according to estimates, 3,000 tons of munitions are concentrated in Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and the border areas. To remove them, relief teams need at least 10 years.

In the middle of the Gaza Strip, data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs indicate that the Nuseirat, Maghazi, Bureij and Deir al-Balah camps are considered unsafe areas due to the presence of approximately 1,500 tons of munitions that have injured 25 people since the beginning of this year.

As for Khan Yunis, it is considered one of the areas most contaminated with unexploded ordnance, containing about two thousand tons of it. Estimates indicate that removing it from this area alone may take more than 12 years due to the intensity of the destruction.

Moving south, the occupation forces left approximately 800 tons of unexploded ordnance in Rafah.

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.

UN data concluded that the total amount of unexploded ordnance in the entire affected sector may exceed 7 thousand tons, distributed unevenly between the governorates, and that the greatest danger after the war is what remains under the rubble.