Feature: Gaza goes all out to dispose explosive devices left by war

Two years after an Israeli war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, unexploded bombs (UXBs) still pose a dangerous threat to the lives of the territory's 1.9 million residents.

To deal with the problem, the Interior Ministry in Gaza, in cooperation with the United Nations bomb disposal units, successfully destroyed large numbers of UXBs.

"There are tons of unexploded devices across the Gaza Strip and this really poses a hazardous threat to the whole strip," General Emad Amassi, head of the police disposal unit in Hamas-run Interior Ministry, told Xinhua.

He added that the ministry works jointly with the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) under a project to remove and destroy war remnants from several areas in Gaza.

According to the United Nations, the Israeli war on Gaza in 2014 left some 7,000 explosive devices, which are seen by the authorities in Gaza as a silent death to the enclave's population.

"Our efforts focus on spotting, removing and then destroying unexploded devices. The problem is that these bombs are beneath destroyed homes, which makes it difficult for people to remove and rebuild their homes and facilities," Amassi said.

Experts say that some 3,000 out of the 7,000 have been dismantled and destroyed so far.

Hamas police officials say the UN has been supporting key mine action response activities in Gaza such as assessing and neutralizing the threat of unexploded ordnance in addition to brining funds for the project from international donors.

In mid-2014, Israel and Hamas fighters engaged in a bloody war that left more than 2,200 Gazans dead and thousands of homes destroyed.

Bomb disposal experts in Gaza say that Israel had dropped the equivalent of six nuclear bombs on the seaside territory during the 2014 war.

Right after the war, the Gaza Interior Ministry announced that Israel had dropped 20,000 tons of explosives on the 360 square kilometer territory, adding that many of the explosives used are internationally banned.

The ministry revealed that flechette shells, fuel-air bombs that explode twice, including after impact, dime shells, and flechette shells saturated with uranium were used during the war.

For the UN, mine action staff have provided safety awareness training to thousands of personnel involved in the UN, non-governmental organization (NGO) humanitarian activities within Gaza, and to the local population as well.

This effort reduces the potential of death and injury and supports rubble removal, reconstruction and rehabilitation of housing, infrastructure, agricultural land and livelihoods.

According to the UN, unexploded ordnances left by the Israeli army after the 2014 war have killed 16 people and injured 97 others, including 48 children.

Even before the assault, unexploded ordnances from the 2008-9 and 2012 Israeli offensives against Gaza were a major threat to local people.

A 2012 report published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that 111 civilians, 64 of whom children, were casualties of unexploded ordnance between 2009 and 2012, reaching an average of four every month in 2012.

In an attempt to avoid more casualties, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been working with the Ministry of Interior on a series of campaigns to tell Gazans about the dangers of explosive remnants of war.

The ICRC has launched a number of campaigns to provide an overview of unexploded devices safety and awareness of local people.

During the campaigns, people were told what unexploded ordnances are, their shapes and sizes, and the safety measures that should be adopted in dealing with suspicious ordinance.

"We have conducted awareness campaigns through mobile phone short messages to give people instructions on how to deal with such devices, such as not to touch or get close to unexploded devices and call the police teams who can deal with them," Suhair Zakot, ICRC Gaza spokeswoman, told Xinhua.

She said that ICRC also carried out a number of awareness projects with people living in border areas that have the majority of the unexploded remnants. Endit