GAZA
CITY (Ma'an) -- Two Palestinian children were injured as an unexploded
Israeli ordnance blew up in eastern Gaza City on Wednesday. Medical
sources said that two children were injured when ordnance left from the
latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip went off in the Shujaiyyeh
neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
In September, three people were killed and two injured by unexploded ordnance in the neighborhood.
Over
7,000 unexploded ordnance were left throughout the Gaza Strip following
last summer's war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups,
according to officials of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the
Palestinian territories (OCHA).Although Gaza police
explosives teams have been working across the territory to destroy the
ordnance and prevent safety threats to locals, lack of proper equipment
due to the seven-year Israeli siege as well as lack of resources more
generally have hindered such efforts.
Even before the most
frequent Israeli assault, unexploded ordnance from the 2008-9 and 2012
offensives was a major threat to Gazans.
A 2012 report
published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said
that 111 civilians, 64 of whom were children, were casualties to
unexploded ordnance between 2009 and 2012, reaching an average of four
every month in 2012.
