As tens of thousands of tons of Israeli unexploded ordnance threaten lives across the Strip, Israel’s restrictions on the access of heavy machinery are hampering Gaza City’s efforts to clear debris and rebuild critical infrastructure, the city’s mayor said.
Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj said at a press conference on Sunday that Gaza City needs at least 250 heavy vehicles and 1,000 tons of cement to maintain its water network and build wells.
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Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudaly newspaper, reporting from As Zawaida in the Gaza Strip, said only six trucks entered the area.
At least 9,000 Palestinians remain buried under the rubble. But the new equipment prioritizes recovering the bodies of Israeli prisoners rather than helping Palestinians find loved ones still trapped under the rubble.
“The Palestinians say they know there will be no progress on the ceasefire until the bodies of all Israeli prisoners are returned,” Caudalie said.
Footage circulating on social media shows a Red Cross vehicle arriving after a meeting with Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and escorting Israeli prisoners to their location south of Rafah.
An Israeli government spokesperson said Red Cross and Egyptian teams were allowed to cross the ceasefire’s “yellow line” to search for the remains of prisoners, allowing Israel to maintain control of 58 percent of the besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera’s Noor Odeh newspaper reported from Amman that Israel had spent two weeks insisting that Hamas knew the location of all prisoners’ bodies.
“Two weeks on, Israel has now allowed Egyptian teams and heavy equipment into the Gaza Strip to assist in the huge mission to clear the rubble and reach the tunnels, homes and buildings beneath where prisoners of war were being held and killed,” she said.
Odeh added that Hamas had been unable to access the tunnels for two weeks due to damage from Israeli bombing. “That policy change is being made without any explanation from Israel,” she said, noting that the Red Cross and Hamas were also allowed to help locate potential burial sites beneath the rubble.
Prime Minister Netanyahu: “We control Gaza”
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to reassert his political authority at home, saying Israel controls foreign forces operating in Gaza.
“We are in charge of our own security, and we have made it clear to international forces that Israel decides which forces are unacceptable to us. That is what we have done and will continue to do.” “Of course, this is accepted by the United States, as the most senior representative of the United States recently expressed.”
Odeh explained that Netanyahu’s comments were aimed at reassuring Israel’s far-right factions, who believe that Netanyahu is no longer in charge.
She explained that it appears that Israeli soldiers or military leaders are not currently overseeing the ceasefire, and that Washington is “asking Israel to give advance notice of any attacks it may be planning within the Gaza Strip.”
Odeh noted that Israel’s insistence on controlling foreign actors operating in Gaza, coupled with its limited access to reconstruction, underscores a broader strategy to maintain domestic political support.
Unexploded ordnance is a threat
Gaza’s reconstruction faces further obstacles from unexploded ordnance. Nicholas Torbett, Middle East director at Britain’s HALO Trust, said Gaza was “essentially one giant city” and every part was being hit with explosives.
“Some munitions are designed to linger, but what we are concerned about in Gaza are weapons that were expected to explode on impact but did not,” he told Al Jazeera.
Torbett said the removal of explosives was slowing down the reconstruction process. His team plans to work directly within communities to safely remove bombs, rather than dividing vast areas into sections indefinitely. “The best way to defuse a bomb is to detonate it with a small amount of explosives,” he explained.
Torbett added that the equipment needed is relatively simple and can be transported by small vehicle or by hand, and progress is starting to occur.
Massive explosives dropped by Israel have left deadly debris scattered across the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told Al Jazeera that Israel had dropped at least 200,000 tons of explosives in the territory, with about 70,000 tons unexploded.
Children in particular have been affected greatly, with some mistaking bombs for toys. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Hariri reported on an incident in which 7-year-old Yahya Shorbashi and his sister Nabila found what appeared to be a toy while playing outside.
“They found an ordinary children’s toy. It was an ordinary toy. The girl was holding it and the boy picked it up and started hitting it with a coin. Suddenly they heard an explosion. It exploded in their hands,” mother Latifa Shorbasi told Al Jazeera.
Yahya’s right arm had to be amputated, while Nabila remains in intensive care.
Dr. Harriet, an emergency physician at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital, described the situation as “an unfolding public health disaster.” She said children were being injured by seemingly harmless items such as toys, cans and debris, but were actually live explosives.
Luke David Irving, head of the United Nations mine action agency, said 328 people had already been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since October 2023.
Tens of thousands of tons of bombs remain buried across Gaza, including landmines, mortar shells and large bombs capable of destroying concrete buildings. Vassal said removing the explosives could take years and cost millions of dollars.
For Palestinians, the situation is a race against time. Al Jazeera’s Khoudaly said civilians are demanding faster progress: “They want reconstruction, they want freedom of movement and they want to see and feel that a ceasefire is coming.”
