A top UN demining official has disclosed that it will take a long period of time for the rubble in Gaza to be cleared.
Pehr Lodhammar, the former United Nationals Mine Action Service chief for Iraq, told a news conference that Israel’s war in Gaza has created 37m tonnes of debris, much of it laced with unexploded bombs, which could take more than a decade to remove.
Nearly seven months into the war, there is an average 300kg of rubble a square metre of land in Gaza,
“Based on the current [amount] of debris in Gaza, with 100 trucks we are talking about 14 years of work … to remove it. With the war continuing, it was impossible to estimate how long clearance might take at its end.”
Pehr Lodhammar
Israel has been accused of “domicide” over the intensity of its bombing campaign in Gaza, which has reduced large swathes of the strip to ruins.
Lodhammar said that sixty-five per cent of the buildings destroyed in Gaza were residential.
Clearing and rebuilding them will be slow and dangerous work because of the threat from shells, missiles or other weapons buried in collapsed or damaged buildings.
On average about 10% of weapons failed to detonate when they were fired, Lodhammar said, and had to be removed by demining teams.
Hamas Receives Latest Israeli Proposal
Meanwhile, Palestinian group, Hamas announced that it has received Israel’s official response to its latest proposal about a possible ceasefire in Gaza and will study the document before submitting a reply.
“Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13,” Deputy Gaza Chief, Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement published by the group on Saturday, April 27, 2024.
After more than six months of Israel’s brutal war on the Gaza Strip, negotiations to bring about a ceasefire remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement with Israel must bring an end to Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave.
An Egyptian delegation visited Israel for discussion with Israeli officials on Friday, looking for a way to restart talks to end the conflict and return remaining captives held in Gaza following the October 7 attacks on southern Israel, an official briefed on the meetings told a French news agency.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said Israel had no new proposals to make, although it was willing to consider a limited truce in which 33 captives would be released by Hamas, instead of the 40 previously under discussion.
On Thursday, the United States and 17 other countries appealed to Hamas to release all of its captives as a pathway to end the war.
In a statement issued on Friday, Hamas said that it was “open to any ideas or proposals that take into account the needs and rights of our people.”
However, the group stuck to its key demand that Israel end its war on Gaza and criticised the joint statement issued by the US and others for not calling for a permanent ceasefire, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
The war in Gaza is also on the agenda for an international summit set to kick off in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
The World Economic Forum special meeting, scheduled to begin in Riyadh on Sunday, will include a Gaza-focused session on Monday set to feature newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations aid coordinator for the Gaza Strip.
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