UN warns of decades-long ordnance threat in Gaza; three killed in fresh strikes
Shafaq News- Geneva/ Gaza
The United Nations cautioned Friday that the Gaza Strip faces severe explosive ordnance contamination that is already killing and maiming civilians and could obstruct recovery efforts for generations, as Israeli military operations in the territory continued with fresh casualties reported.
Palestinian media outlets reported three fatalities following an Israeli strike targeting civilians in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City. Separately, Israeli artillery struck areas east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza's Government Media Office said that Israel had committed approximately 2,400 ceasefire violations, including killings, arrests, and blockade measures. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, those violations have killed 972 Palestinians and injured 2,235 others since the ceasefire took effect on October 10 2025.
UN Warning on Ordnance Contamination
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) —the UN body responsible for coordinating mine action globally— reported that more than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, from indirect conflict causes, primarily remnants of war, including unexploded bombs, grenades, and bullets.
Julius Van der Walt, UNMAS chief in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva that the figure was a severe undercount of the actual death toll, and that children account for half of those recorded.
Narmina Strishenets, a representative of Save the Children UK, cited a report by the organization finding that in 2024, the use of explosive weapons in Gaza left an average of 475 children each month with potentially permanent disabilities, including amputations.
Gaza now has the largest number of child amputees of any conflict zone in the world, Strishenets said.
Scale of Contamination
UNMAS has identified more than 1,000 items of explosive ordnance during missions conducted over the past two and a half years, though Van der Walt acknowledged the agency had been unable to conduct a comprehensive survey. Based on available data, the density of contamination amounts to roughly one piece of explosive ordnance for every 600 meters across the territory.
A best-case scenario assessment puts the cost of addressing the explosive ordnance threat at $541 million, contingent on full access permissions and availability of required equipment. Van der Walt warned that the scale and variety of contamination —including ordnance buried within large volumes of debris— makes a complete accounting nearly impossible and that the threat will persist for decades.
