As mine clearance specialists cautioned that the Gaza Strip is currently in its “most dangerous period” on Monday in Geneva at the 27th International Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and United Nations Advisers, UN peacekeeping and de-mining chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix reaffirmed demands for a truce in Gaza as a first step toward restoring some normalcy to the war-torn enclave.
The Chief of the UN Mine Action Programme (UNMAS) in the State of Palestine, Mungo Birch, warned, “Once people start returning to the north, that’s when most accidents will occur because they won’t be familiar with further risk assessment.
A humanitarian cease-fire constitutes a “priority,” asserted the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations and Chair of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Mine Action, as does sending “much more humanitarian assistance to Gaza” once deminers and weapons experts determine it is safe to do so.
La Croix stressed the hazards of regional escalation amid continuing border clashes between Israel and Lebanon. “Talking about Lebanon, then you know what needs to be absolutely avoided is further escalation,” he said.
Birch observed that Gaza has “more rubble than Ukraine.” In Ukraine, he said, the front is 600 miles long. In contrast, “Gaza is 25 miles long. It’s also 87% urbanized, so it’s very densely packed construction” which includes some 800,000 tons of asbestos and other contaminants toxic to human beings.
“There were lulls [in Gaza], but the bombardment was like nothing I ever experienced,” he said. “I was with a colleague who had been in Ukraine, in the Ukrainian security forces. He said the bombardment [in Gaza] was worse than anything he’d experienced in the Donbas,” Birch recounted.
To address the challenge of reconstructing Gaza when the conflict is over, Birch asserted that recycling the rubble “will figure heavily” in any restoration.
Despite the enormous scope of the upcoming mine sweeping effort, UNMAS has a mere $5 million in financing. Another $40 million will be needed over the next 18 months merely to begin the clearing operation.