Israel army ‘deliberately’ leaves explosives in citizens’ homes in Gaza

The Government Media Office in Gaza has accused the Israeli occupation army of “deliberately” leaving explosive remnants in people’s homes to increase the number of “martyrs and wounded”, calling on the international community to help deal with the remnants safely.

In a statement yesterday, it warned of repeated incidents in which bombs placed in cans have exploded in citizens’ homes injuring civilians, the last of whom was 14-year-old Muhammad Yasser Samour, who was seriously injured in Al-Zana area in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza Strip.

According to the statement, Samour was searching for his personal belongings inside his house when he found what he thought were cans of food left by Israeli soldiers who had occupied the property, but when he attempted to open one of them, it exploded, injuring him. As a result, he has had one of his limbs amputated.

The office condemned “the [Israeli] occupation’s crime of intentionally booby-trapping the waste it leaves behind.”

“As if the [Israeli] occupation was not satisfied with killing our people through direct bombardment, it is using the deception of canned bombs to increase the number of martyrs and wounded, especially children who cannot distinguish between this waste,” it said.

The office pointed out that “according to international estimates and as confirmed by reports of the competent government agencies; about ten per cent of the shells and bombs dropped by the occupation army, estimated at more than 75,000 tonnes of explosives, has not exploded.”

This, it added, “represents a severe danger that will not end even with the end of the aggression, unless it is removed and neutralised.”

It called on the people of Gaza “not to tamper with such waste, to pay close attention to canned food left by soldiers and to communicate with civil defence crews and authorities specialised in explosives engineering to deal with them.”

The office also called on the international community to send specialised engineering teams and explosives experts and provide the local authorities in Gaza with the necessary technical capabilities to deal with these remnants in order to remove the danger.

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