INTERNATIONAL: Gaza: Unexploded bombs turn deadly for Palestinians!
As fragile peace settles over Gaza, families venture back to shattered neighborhoods, sifting through wreckage for scraps of normalcy.
Yet beneath the debris lurks a silent menace: unexploded bombs that turn children’s curiosity into catastrophe.
With cleanup just beginning, these remnants of war claim fresh victims daily, casting long shadows on recovery hopes.
Twins’ Close Call in the Ruins
In Gaza City’s battered streets, six-year-old twins Yahya and Nabila Shorbasi chased play amid the chaos last week.
Spotting a shiny orb half-buried in the dirt, they mistook it for a forgotten ball and scooped it up.
The blast that followed hurled shrapnel, leaving both with severe wounds that landed them in Shifa Hospital’s care.
Their grandfather, Tawfiq, recounted the horror: the device, an unexploded Israeli munition, blended seamlessly with the rubble-strewn playground.
Doctors stabilized the siblings after hours of surgery, but the incident underscores how war’s echoes prey on the innocent.
Families now whisper warnings, yet the pull to reclaim homes proves stronger than fear.
Mounting Toll on the Young
Health workers sound alarms over these “invisible killers,” with Gaza’s medical teams treating a surge in blast injuries.
Last week alone saw five children hurt in similar mishaps, per ministry tallies, as exploratory digs unearth more hazards.
The pattern repeats: kids foraging for fun or food trigger devices meant for battlefields.
Beyond the twins, reports detail toddlers nicking fingers on cluster bomblets or teens flipping over rusted shells.
Each explosion ripples through communities already stretched thin, taxing scant resources.
Aid groups urge marking zones and education drives, but scale overwhelms.
UNMAS Weighs the Hidden Threat
The United Nations Mine Action Service tallies a grim ledger: 328 Palestinians killed or wounded by such ordnance since October 2023.
Chief Luke David Irving, speaking at a recent UN briefing, pegged over 500 devices neutralized in the ceasefire’s early days alone.
He warns thousands more lurk, buried under layers of destruction.
Clearance experts from abroad trickle in, armed with detectors and drones, but Irving stresses the marathon ahead. Surface sweeps might span 20 to 30 years, given the terrain’s toxicity.
Deeper digs for infrastructure? Decades more. The math is daunting: 61 million tons of rubble cloak potential hotspots, a toxic legacy from two years of relentless strikes.
Path to Safer Ground
International pledges swell for demining kits and training, yet funding gaps yawn wide.
Local crews, blending caution with resolve, map danger spots via apps and signs. Palestinians adapt, trading stories of near misses over shared meals in tents.
Hope flickers in small wins: a cleared alley, a schoolyard swept safe. But until the last bomb sleeps, every step homeward carries weight.
Global eyes must stay fixed, turning awareness into action before more lives shatter.