The United Nations (UN), in cooperation with an international NGO team and Hamas police, on Monday started to defuse unexploded ordnance in Gaza more than a year after Israel ended its military offensive against the coastal enclave.

The defusing task includes detonating some white phosphorus shells that Israel used in the three-week military campaign which ended on Jan. 18, 2009, Sheila Black, support specialist of UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT), told Xinhua.

The detonation will took place in a sandy area in southern Gaza Strip where an abandoned Israeli settlement used to stand, she added.

The defusing work will be carried out by UNMAT and UK-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), according to her.

Thousands of houses were destroyed during the Israeli offensive which started in December 2008, and "that's why it has taken three months "to identify the location of the ammunition," said Sheila Black.

Hazem Abu Murad, a Hamas police officer, said the project will continue "until we get rid of all the ammunition left from the last war."

There were still hundreds of mines, missiles, bombs and shells to be defused, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2010)