The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has found unexploded 1,000-pound bombs inside schools after Israel pulled troops out of southern Gaza’s main city Khan Younis.
UN agencies led an ‘assessment mission’ in Khan Younis after Israeli forces withdrew from the embattled city last week, UNRWA said.
It found ‘significant challenges in operating safely due to the presence of unexploded ordnance (UXOs), including 1,000-pound bombs inside schools and on roads’.
“Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) require a range of lifesaving assistance, including health, water and sanitation, and food,” it said.
Earlier this month, the United Nations said it would take ‘millions of dollars and many years to decontaminate Gaza from unexploded munitions’.
“We work off the rule of thumb that 10 per cent of ordnance doesn’t function as designed,” UN Mine Action Service chief Charles Birch said in a statement earlier this month.
“We estimate that, to begin the clearance of Gaza, we need around $45 million.”
At least eight Palestinians were killed and many others injured in an Israeli strike yesterday targeting vehicles in Al Tuffah neighbourhood in central Gaza.