Delaying Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Gaza
The war in Gaza
This author briefly overviews Explosive Ordnance Disposal in the Gaza Strip. Among the moral and political wrangling over Gaza's future, this article covers an overlooked munitions clearance issue in Gaza. Moreover, the consequences of the timing of that task are considerable.
Assessing Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Gaza is dominated by two factors. First, before the war, Gaza was a high population-density urban area. [1] Second, there is a high likelihood of the fighting between the Israeli Defence Force and Hamas resuming after the current ceasefire ends.
Moreover, other examples of removing unexploded bombs occur after a conflict's end. For instance, the Allied occupying powers en-mass cleared unused or unexploded ordnances from post-war Germany. Instead of detonating those potentially deadly stockpiles, dumping those supplies into the ocean was deemed the best option. [2]
However, the current Gaza ceasefire isn't tied to removing remaining deadly hazards. Put another way, the Israeli withdrawal from parts of Gaza is leaving behind the Israeli Defence Force's dud munitions, emplaced mines and unused supply caches. [3] Conservative estimates of those leftover defective weapons aren't unexpected, but that doesn't reduce the problem's massive scale. [4]
The terrible fallout from that Gaza ceasefire omitting Explosive Ordnance Disposal offers several outcomes. Palestinian civilian causalities from unexploded ordnances produce death, injuries and Hamas propaganda opportunities. Moreover, providing those seriously injured people with medical care is an ethical and practical issue for policymakers and implementers to ponder. How Israel gifts Hamas windows for propaganda is also on display.
Moreover, there are two causes of the Israeli Defence Force's increasing casualties from their unexploded ordances. First, a failure to map expended munitions locations leaves ground units vulnerable to landmine disasters and other incidents. Second, Hamas retrieves those armaments from the rubble and employs them against the Israelis. [5] Hamas redeploys landmines and incorporates other armaments into booby traps and improvised explosive devices.
Unfortunately, why the Gaza ceasefire ignores, the war's explosive remnants stem from narrow thinking and existing priorities: One of Israel's main goals is the return of the hostages taken during the October 7, 2023, attacks. [6] The understandable desire to see the hostages return home overrides other factors. Moreover, Hamas is content to exploit Israeli oversights to their advantage.
References
[1]
https://www.britannica.com/place/Gaza-Strip
[2]
https://www.dsm.museum/en/museum/exhibitions/north-sea-wrecks-exhibition/the-legacy-of-two-
world-wars/postwar-munitions-dumping-in-the-german-north-and-baltic-seas
[3]
The Gaza CeaseFire arrangement:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5klgv5zv0o
Background article:
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/explosive-remnants-gazas-literal-ticking-bomb
[4]
Ibid
[5]
Ibid
[6]
It should be remembered that unexploded ordnance is still resurfacing along the World War One battle lines and NATO has for decades conducted international mine and ordnance clearance annually in the eastern Baltic Sea. Even here in the US, unexploded ordnance will surface on old Civil War battlefields and often at World War One training sites.