GENEVA: War-torn Gaza is heavily contaminated by unexploded ordnance, which frequently kill and maim people and could threaten recovery efforts far into the future, the UN said Friday. Unexploded ordnance, ranging from undetonated bombs or grenades to simple bullets, has become a common sight in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel&#39;s war on Gaza. The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said it had data suggesting that since the start of the conflict, more than 1,000 people had been killed in Gaza due to &quot;indirect conflict&quot;, from the remnants of war. Julius Van der Walt, UNMAS chief in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, stressed that that number was certainly a severe under-estimate. Half of the known casualties were children, he told reporters in Geneva. Speaking alongside him at a press conference on mine action work worldwide, Narmina Strishenets of Save the Children UK, also highlighted the heavy toll on youngsters. A report by the organization published last year found that in 2024, the use of explosive weapons in Gaza left an average of 475 children each month with potentially lifelong disabilities, including amputations. Today, Strishenets said, Gaza has &quot;the largest cohort of child amputees&quot; in the world. &#39;High density&#39; Van der Walt said UNMAS had so far been unable to conduct an extensive survey of the full scope of the problem, but &quot;the evidence already suggests a high density of explosive ordnance contamination across the Gaza Strip&quot;. So far, UNMAS had identified &quot;more than 1,000 items of explosive ordnance&quot;, during missions conducted over the past 2.5 years. Compared to Gaza&#39;s small geographic size, that means there is about one piece of explosive ordnance &quot;every 600 meters&quot;, he pointed out. And those are only the items that have been found. &quot;We have barely scratched the surface in understanding what is the level of contamination,&quot; he acknowledged. Adding to the danger was Gaza&#39;s very high population density. Prior to the war, Gaza was one already of the most densely-populated places on Earth, with around 6,000 people per square kilometer, Van der Walt said, pointing out that the war had effectively halved the space available, and doubled the density. &quot;Explosive weapons are being used all across the territories, including in densely-populated refugee camps,&quot; he said, pointing to a recent case where explosive ordnance was found inside a tent where people had been living for several weeks. At the same time, &quot;humanitarian convoys risk detonation as they travel throughout the Gaza Strip, and early recovery efforts are essentially stalled before they can even begin&quot;, he said. $541 million Van der Walt pointed to an assessment that, in a best-case scenario, it will cost around $541 million to address the explosive ordnance threat, if all necessary permissions are granted and the equipment required is accessible. He warned that the contamination, including within mountains of debris, was so vast and so varied, that it was &quot;very close to impossible to ... do a full assessment&quot;, and that ordnance would likely remain a problem for decades to come. He pointed to the World War II bombs that continue to be discovered during construction projects in Britain. &quot;We can anticipate something along those lines&quot; in Gaza, he said.

People inspect a destroyed civilian vehicle after it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike that reportedly killed three people on Salah al-Din Street, south of Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on April 23, 2026. (AFP)

Middle East

UN warns unexploded ordnance across Gaza is killing and injuring civilians, including children, and could delay recovery for decades, with contamination widespread and cleanup estimated to cost hundreds of millions.

Unexploded bombs littering Gaza threaten recovery for decades, UN warns

Web Desk/AFP

GAZA CITY: The Israeli government on Sunday approved a proposal to register areas of the <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/netanyahu-tells-us-envoy-palestinian-authority-wont-be-part-of-postwar-gaza-governance" style="color:#0073e6;">West Bank</a> as &ldquo;state property,&rdquo; and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/gaza-civil-defense-says-death-toll-from-israeli-strikes-rises-to-17" style="color:#0073e6;">continued</a> its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 12 people, Al Jazeera reported.&nbsp; Israeli broadcaster Kan reported that the country&rsquo;s Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, and Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, submitted the proposal. The finance minister said the country was &ldquo;continuing the settlement revolution to control all our lands.&rdquo;&nbsp; Article 49 of the Geneva Convention states, &ldquo;The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.&rdquo;&nbsp; According to Wafa, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said the decision marked a first step toward annexation and undermined the foundations of a Palestinian state. Separately, Gaza&#39;s civil defense agency reported that Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people since dawn, while a military official said the attacks were in response to ceasefire violations. Despite a <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pakistan-muslim-nations-denounce-israeli-ceasefire-breaches-killing-palestinians-in-gaza" style="color:#0073e6;">US-brokered truce</a> that entered its second phase last month, violence has continued in the Palestinian territory, with Hamas blaming Israel for violating the agreement. The civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force, said one strike hit a tent of displaced people in northern Gaza and another targeted an area in the south. Five people were killed, and several were injured when an air strike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in the north, the agency said in a statement. Five more were killed, and several were injured in a separate early morning strike in the southern city of Khan Yunis, the agency said, adding that one more was killed in Israeli shelling in Gaza City. The agency also said that one person was killed by Israeli gunfire in Beit Lahia in north Gaza. The Al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals confirmed they had received the bodies of at least seven people. &quot;Israel doesn&#39;t understand ceasefires or truces,&quot; said Osama Abu Askar, who lost his nephew in the Jabalia attack. He said the people killed there were hit as they slept. &quot;We&#39;ve been living under a truce for months, and they&#39;ve still targeted us. Israel operates on this principle &mdash; saying one thing and doing another,&quot; Askar told AFP.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says country was “continuing the settlement revolution to control all our lands”; Palestinian foreign ministry affirms that Israeli occupation’s decision represented the first step toward annexation, undermining the foundations of the Palestinian state.

Israel approves West Bank land as state property, continues Gaza bombardment: report

GAZA CITY: An Israeli air strike killed an AFP freelancer and two other journalists in Gaza on Wednesday, the territory&#39;s civil defense agency said, while the military said it struck &quot;suspects&quot; operating a drone. Since Oct. 10, a fragile US-sponsored ceasefire in Gaza has largely halted the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but both sides have alleged frequent violations. In a statement, the civil defense said three journalists were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Al-Zahra area southwest of Gaza City, naming the dead as Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat, and Anas Ghneim. Shaat had contributed regularly to AFP as a photo and video journalist, but at the time of the strike, he was not on assignment for the agency. In a statement, AFP said it was mourning the loss of Shaat, who would be remembered as a &quot;kind-hearted colleague, with a gentle sense of humor, and as a deeply committed journalist.&quot; &quot;AFP demands a full and transparent investigation into his death,&quot; it said. &quot;Far too many local journalists have been killed in Gaza over the past two years while foreign journalists remain unable to enter the territory freely,&quot; the agency added. In a statement, the Israeli military said troops had &quot;identified several suspects who operated a drone affiliated with Hamas in the central Gaza Strip.&quot; The military did not elaborate on what it meant by a &quot;drone affiliated with Hamas.&quot; &quot;Due to the threat that the drone posed to the troops, the (Israeli military) precisely struck the suspects who activated the drone,&quot; it said, adding that the details were under review. Vehicle &#39;criminally targeted&#39;&nbsp;According to an eyewitness, the journalists were using a drone to take images of aid distribution by the Egyptian Relief Committee in the Gaza Strip when a strike targeted a vehicle accompanying them. The Egyptian aid group confirmed one of its vehicles was targeted by Israel in a strike that killed three people. &quot;A vehicle belonging to the Egyptian Committee was targeted during a humanitarian mission, resulting in the martyrdom of three individuals,&quot; said Mohammed Mansour, a spokesman for the Egyptian Relief Committee in the Gaza Strip, adding that all vehicles belonging to the group &quot;bear the committee&#39;s logo&quot;. &quot;The Israeli army criminally targeted this vehicle&quot; when the individuals were filming the Netzarim camp, Mansour said. AFP footage showed the vehicle charred, with mangled remains lying in an open area. Palestinian movement Hamas called the strike &quot;a dangerous escalation of the flagrant violations of the ceasefire agreement.&quot; The Palestinian Journalists&#39; Syndicate condemned it as part of a &quot;systematic and deliberate policy pursued by the Israeli occupation to intentionally target Palestinian journalists&quot;. Israeli forces have killed at least 466 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory&#39;s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority. The Israeli military said militants have killed three of its soldiers during the same period. Gaza&#39;s health ministry said another eight Palestinians were also killed in Israeli attacks in the territory on Wednesday. Journalists under fire&nbsp;Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed &quot;deep anger&quot; at the strike that killed Shaat and his colleagues, while the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was &quot;appalled.&quot; &quot;This isolated strike on journalists who were identifiable by their reporting equipment could indicate targeting and constitute a war crime,&quot; Martin Roux, head of RSF&#39;s crisis desk, was quoted as saying in a statement. Israel&#39;s advanced surveillance and targeting technology renders &quot;any claims of misidentification implausible,&quot; Sara Qudah, the CPJ&#39;s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, was quoted in an X post as saying. RSF said that Israeli forces killed at least 29 Palestinian journalists in Gaza between December 2024 and December 2025. The deadliest single attack was a so-called &quot;double-tap&quot; strike on a hospital in south Gaza on Aug. 25, which killed five journalists, including two contributors to international news agencies Reuters and the Associated Press. Since Hamas&#39;s attack on Israel in October 2023 sparked the war in Gaza, nearly 220 journalists have been killed by Israel, making the Palestinian territory by far the deadliest place for journalists, RSF data says. The Israeli military claims that several journalists it targeted in Gaza had been &quot;terrorists&quot; affiliated with Palestinian militant groups. Last week, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff announced the start of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-says-gaza-truce-plan-entering-phase-two-as-governance-body-formed" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">phase two</a>&nbsp;of the Gaza ceasefire. The strike on Wednesday came hours after the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/israels-netanyahu-accepts-trump-invitation-to-join-board-of-peace-statement" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">accepted</a> an invitation to join US President Donald Trump&#39;s &quot;Board of Peace&quot; aimed at resolving conflicts.

Since Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023 sparked the war in Gaza, nearly 220 journalists have been killed by Israel, making the Palestinian territory by far the deadliest place for journalists; Israeli military claims that several journalists it targeted in Gaza had been 'terrorists' affiliated with Palestinian groups.

Israeli strike kills three Gaza journalists including AFP freelancer

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday strongly condemned the renewed attacks by Israeli occupying forces in Gaza, terming them a &quot;flagrant violation of international law and a breach of the recently concluded peace agreement&quot;.&nbsp;In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan said the Israeli strikes had reportedly caused civilian casualties and warned that such aggressive actions threatened to undermine international efforts aimed at ensuring durable peace and stability in the region. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-3" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-3&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1983459459847655559&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=e5a7764e4b5f3f5afda3241472f87810c34e2d03&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 923px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;">&nbsp;</iframe></div> &ldquo;These actions constitute a clear and flagrant violation of international law, as well as a breach of the recently concluded peace agreement,&rdquo; the statement read. &ldquo;Such aggressive measures by the Israeli occupation forces threaten to undermine international efforts aimed at establishing durable peace and stability in the region.&rdquo;</div>&nbsp;Pakistan urged the international community to take immediate steps to halt the ceasefire violations by Israeli forces.&nbsp;The statement reaffirmed Islamabad&rsquo;s consistent and principled support for the Palestinian cause and called for the establishment of an independent, sovereign, and viable State of Palestine based on the pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.&nbsp;Pakistan reiterated that peace in the Middle East would remain elusive until a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue is achieved in accordance with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.

Foreign Affairs

Says these actions constitute a clear and flagrant violation of international law, as well as a breach of the recently concluded peace agreement.

Articles tagged with "Israel air strikes on Gaza"

Unexploded bombs littering Gaza threaten recovery for decades, UN warns

Israel approves West Bank land as state property, continues Gaza bombardment: report

Israeli strike kills three Gaza journalists including AFP freelancer

Pakistan condemns Israel’s violations of Gaza peace agreement