UN official: it could take 14 years to clear Gaza Strip of rubble and unexploded bombs
The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday.
Reuters reports Pehr Lodhammar, senior officer at the UN mine action service (Unmas), told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the widely urbanised, densely populated territory.
He said that although it was impossible to determine the exact number of unexploded ordnance found in Gaza, it was projected that it could take 14 years under certain conditions to clear debris, including rubble from destroyed buildings.
“We know that typically there’s a failure rate of at least 10% of land service ammunition that is being fired and fails to function,” he said. “We’re talking about 14 years of work with 100 trucks.”
Key events
Summary of the day …
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The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday. Pehr Lodhammar, senior officer at the UN mine action service (Unmas), told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the widely urbanised, densely populated territory.
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Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the hope of brokering a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza. Egypt’s top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, is said to be leading the delegation. Israeli media has reported the outline of a deal is for Israel to undertake to stop all preparations for entering Rafah, the release of all the Israeli abductees by Hamas in two stages with time intervals of 10 weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel, and a full ceasefire from both sides for a year.
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A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday. Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her. The baby’s home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was hit by an Israeli airstrike shortly before midnight Saturday. Her parents and 4-year-old sister were all killed.
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At least 34,356 Palestinians have been killed and 77,368 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
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Israel’s military has issued a statement claiming it has foiled a terror attack after detaining two suspects near a farm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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Hezbollah claims that it attacked an Israeli military convoy with anti-tank missiles and artillery shells, and that it destroyed two vehicles. Israel’s military have not commented on claims about the destruction of vehicles, but said “an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work was injured and he was later pronounced dead.”
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Two people have been arrested while protesting outside the home of Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz. They were demanding he step down from government over the failure of Israel to secure a release of hostages held by Hamas.
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In another demonstration against Israel’s military campaign, a delegation of American and Israeli rabbis from Rabbis for Ceasefire marched towards the Erez crossing from Israel to the Gaza Strip with food aid for Gaza civilians, calling for a permanent ceasefire.
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Students have blocked access to Paris’ Sciences Po university in a protest over the war in Gaza, demanding the institution condemn Israel’s actions. The demonstration has echos of student protests taking place in the US, where multiple arrests of students have been made on a number of campuses. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said campus protests were part of democracy, but criticised their “silence” over the Hamas. A pro-Palestinian camp has also been set up outside the Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh.
Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum report for the Guardian from Jerusalem:
The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said.
Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 17 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate.
“This case is unique,” said Hassan Jabareen, her lawyer and the director of the human rights organisation Adalah. “This is not only about one professor, it could be a [precedent] for any academic who goes against the consensus in wartime.”
Shalhoub-Kevorkian was released on bail the next day when a magistrate and a district court judge both ruled she did not pose a threat, but has been called for further questioning on Sunday.
Although there have been widespread detentions of Palestinian citizens of Israel who publicly criticised the war in Gaza, this is the first time an academic has been targeted over speech related to their work.
Read more of Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum’s report here: ‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel is civil liberties threat, say lawyers
Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the hope of brokering a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, two officials have told Associated Press.
Egypt’s top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, is said to be leading the delegation and plans to discuss with Israel a “new vision” for a prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the mission freely.
Friday’s talks will focus at first on a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.
Hebrew news site Ynet reports that the delegation has landed in Tel Aviv.
It reports that the main outline of the plan is for Israel to undertake to stop all preparations for entering Rafah, the release of all the Israeli abductees by Hamas in two stages with time intervals of 10 weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel, and a full ceasefire from both sides for a year.
Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported on the continued Israeli aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip. It writes:
Earlier today, Israeli fighter jets bombed a house belonging to the al-Shawa family in the al-Remal neighbourhood. Subsequently, rescue and ambulance crews retrieved the bodies of three victims, including a child and a woman, along with several injured individuals from under the rubble of the targeted house.
Israeli warplanes also targeted the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City, as well as a residential building on al-Wehda Street in the city centre, resulting in the killing of at least one civilian and the injury of others.
Simultaneously, Israeli artillery shelled the Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza, while the occupation forces demolished homes and facilities in the neighbouring town of al-Maghazi.
The claims have not been independently verified, and due to restrictions on media access, it has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
We reported earlier about a demonstration being staged outside the home of Israel war cabinet member Benny Gantz. [See 12.39 BST]
Israeli media are now reporting that two people were arrested at the protest.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said protests at US universities over Israel’s war in Gaza are a hallmark of American democracy, but criticised what he called the “silence” about Hamas.
Reuters reports that asked at a press conference in China whether he was taking on board the protesters’ message, Blinken said he understood the conflict elicited “strong, passionate feelings” and that the administration was doing it all it could to halt the war. He said:
In our own country, it’s a hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time, and I think that reflects the strength of the country, the strength of democracy.
It is also notable that there is silence about Hamas, as if it wasn’t even part of the story.
But as I’ve also said repeatedly, the way Israel goes about ensuring that 7 October never happens again matters profoundly. And we’re working every day to try to minimise the damage that’s done to innocent people and to make sure that they have the assistance and support that they need.
Blinken is expect to visit Israel and other countries in the Middle East region early next week.
US police have made multiple arrests at several university campuses in order to disrupt protests, and allegedly used rubber bullets and teargas at university protest in Georgia.
In another demonstration against Israel’s military campaign, a delegation of American and Israeli rabbis from Rabbis for Ceasefire marched towards the Erez crossing to the Gaza Strip with food aid for Gaza civilians, calling for a permanent ceasefire.
In a statement the protesters said “The Israeli government is using hunger as a weapon against 2.3 million Gazans, preventing essential humanitarian aid and creating malnutrition and disease.”
The group were dispersed by Israeli security forces.
A group of people protesting against the war in Gaza have set up a camp outside the Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh. They accused the UK and Scottish governments of “complicity” in what they called the “ongoing genocide” in the territory.
In a statement the group said:
We are here in protest against Scottish and UK government complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We will stay here until our demands are met. Every day we see the new worst thing we’ve ever seen. We receive condolences and empty outrage/condemnations from people in positions of power, and yet the sale of weapons and arms that enable this genocide continue. We are here because we’ve had enough. We will not be complicit in genocide. We are here with demands. We are here in solidarity with Gaza, and we will continue the fight for a free Palestine.
The group has urged the Scottish government to apply pressure on the UK government to enact an embargo on all Israeli arm sales and call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Yesterday the UK government was one of 18 countries that signed a letter calling on Hamas to release the remaining hostages it has in captivity in Gaza, saying that on the table there was a deal to “bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza” if it did so.
My colleague Adam Gabbatt in the US has this profile of four people who are taking part in student protests about the war in Gaza at US universities.
The EU said on Friday it was giving an extra €68m (£58m / $73m) to provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza, AFP reports.
“In light of the continued deterioration of the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the steady rise of needs on the ground, the (European) Commission is stepping up its funding to support Palestinians affected by the ongoing war,” an EU statement said.
“This support brings total EU humanitarian assistance to 193 million euros for Palestinians in need inside Gaza and across the region in 2024.”
The EU said the new aid would be focused on food deliveries, clean water, sanitation and shelters, and would be channelled through local partners on the ground.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that campus protests sweeping the United States over the Middle East were part of democracy, but criticised the “silence” over the Palestinian militants Hamas, according to the AFP agency.
AFP reports Blinken was speaking in Beijing following a day of meetings with high-ranking officials.
It quotes Blinken saying such protests were a “hallmark of our democracy”. “Our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time.
“I think that reflects the strength of the country.”
But he also reported as saying that protesters had not condemned Hamas, which carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
“As I’ve also said before, this could be over tomorrow, it could have been over yesterday, it could have been over months ago, if Hamas has put down its weapons, stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages.”
“But of course they have chosen not to do that and it is notable there is silence about Hamas, it’s as if it wasn’t even part of the story.”
Police have carried out large-scale arrests in universities across the United States, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests over Israel’s war with Hamas.