Clearing Gaza’s surface of bombs will take up to 30 years: Aid group

Clearing the surface of Gaza of unexploded ordnance will likely take between 20 to 30 years, according to an official with aid group Humanity & Inclusion, describing the enclave as a “horrific, unmapped minefield.”

More than 53 people have been killed and hundreds injured by lethal remnants from the two-year Israel-Hamas war, according to a UN-led database, which is thought by aid groups to be a huge underestimate.

A US-brokered ceasefire this month has raised hopes that the huge task of removing them from among millions of tonnes of rubble can begin.

“If you’re looking at a full clearance, it’s never happening, it’s subterranean. We will find it for generations to come,” said Nick Orr, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal expert at Humanity & Inclusion, comparing the situation with British cities after World War Two.

“Surface clearance, now that’s something that’s attainable within a generation, I think 20 to 30 years,” he added.

“It’s going to be a very small chipping away at a very big problem.”

Orr, who went to Gaza several times during the conflict, is part of his organisation’s seven-person team that will begin identifying war remnants there in essential infrastructure like hospitals and bakeries next week.

For now, however, aid groups like his have not been given blanket Israeli permission to start work on removing and destroying the ordnance nor to import the required equipment, he said.

COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military overseeing Gaza aid, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It blocks items into Gaza which it considers have “dual use” - both civilian and military.

Orr said it was seeking permission to import supplies to burn away bombs rather than detonate them, to ease concerns about them being repurposed by Hamas.

He voiced support for a temporary force such as one foreseen in the 20-point ceasefire plan.

“If there is going to be any kind of future inside of Gaza, there needs to be an enabling security force that allows humanitarians to work,” Orr said.

After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61 million tonnes of debris and three quarters of buildings have been destroyed, according to UN data analysed by AFP.

As of July 8, 2025, the Israeli army had damaged or destroyed nearly 193,000 buildings in the densely populated territory, representing about 78 per cent of existing structures before the conflict began on Oct.7, 2023, according to satellite analysis by the United Nations’ UNOSAT programme.

In an assessment of images from Sept.22-23 of Gaza City, the UN agency estimated that an even higher proportion — 83 per cent — of buildings there had been damaged or destroyed.

The total 61.5 million tonnes of debris is nearly 170 times the weight of New York’s Empire State Building and is equivalent to over 169 kilogrammes of debris for each square metre of Gaza’s small territory.

Nearly two-thirds of the debris was made in the first five months of the war, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The destruction of buildings also accelerated in the months leading up to the current ceasefire.

Eight million tonnes of debris were generated from April to July 2025, mostly in the southern part of the territory between Rafah and Khan Yunis.

A preliminary analysis published by UNEP in August warned the debris poses a serious health risk to the exposed population.

The UN agency suggests that at least 4.9 million tonnes of debris could be contaminated with asbestos from old buildings, particularly near refugee camps such as those in Jabaliya in the north, Nuseirat and al-Maghazi in the centre, and Rafah and Khan Yunis in the south.

NEP also reports at least 2.9 million tonnes of debris could be contaminated with “hazardous waste from known industrial sites”.

The Israeli army relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip in response to the unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

Reuters