The New York Times has a "gotcha" article aimed at Donald Trump: How can Gaza be cleared of explosives when the US has stopped funding NGOs that do exactly that?
Hamas booby traps are at least as much of a danger as unexploded Israeli ordnance. Many IDF soldiers who were trained to be careful for booby traps were killed by them during the war. The IDF reported in early January that Hamas had booby trapped nearly every building left standing in northern Gaza. Some estimates say that 40% of the buildings in Gaza - some 95,000 buildings - are booby trapped.
In an urban area filled with bombs, it is far safer to raze the entire area than to try to clear each explosive individually.
In the newly won districts around this southern city, American forces are encountering empty homes and farm buildings left so heavily booby-trapped by Taliban insurgents that the Americans have been systematically destroying hundreds of them, according to local Afghan authorities.The campaign, a major departure from NATO practice in past military operations, is intended to reduce civilian and military casualties by removing the threat of booby traps and denying Taliban insurgents hiding places and fighting positions, American military officials said....In recent weeks, using armored bulldozers, high explosives, missiles and even airstrikes, American troops have taken to destroying hundreds of them, by a conservative estimate, with some estimates running into the thousands.
As bad as Kandahar was, the cities of Gaza are worse.
In a case like this you don't employ NGOs to clear the area. The work that deminers do would take centuries to clear Gaza. The State Department description of how much time it takes to detect and destroy mines on relatively easy terrain shows how absurd it would be to try to duplicate that in tens of thousands of buildings:
Manual humanitarian demining generally proceeds as follows: wearing personal protective equipment, the deminer approaches the edge of the hazardous area with vegetation cutting tools, probe, excavation tools, a tripwire feeler, a metal detector, mine tape, and mine markers, and begins to clear a lane. The deminer visually scans an area approximately one meter wide by half a meter deep, looking for evidence of landmines. Satisfied that no mines are present on the surface or in the vegetation, the deminer sweeps the area with a tripwire feeler. The deminer carefully removes all vegetation to ground level, using a variety of cutters to ensure no piece of brush falls onto the ground and gently places any brush fragments behind him or herself. The deminer uses a metal detector and, if a signal is heard, sweeps the area with the detector to identify the center and edge of the target. A marker is placed at the target location. The deminer then backs off from the marker approximately 20 centimeters and begins probing for the suspected mine at a 30 degree angle. If a mine is found, the deminer excavates sufficient space to place a demolition charge. It is often safer for deminers to destroy the mine in place, using an explosive charge at the end of daily operations. Neutralizing or defusing mines is avoided when possible, as these procedures carry a greater risk of physical harm. This process is repeated meter by meter until the ground is determined to be free from known hazards.
To perform this level of care when there are thousands of bombs hidden in buildings is impossible. Even for deminers, it is safer to explode the bombs than to remove them, meaning the buildings would be heavily damaged or destroyed anyway.
The bombs embedded in the buildings that are still standing are more of a potential risk than the unexploded bombs dropped by the IDF, although both are of course deadly. The Guardian mentioned on January 15
To properly clear Gaza of explosives, you need to practically flatten Gaza. You need an army. You need armored bulldozers and bombs.
It is not only the New York Times. The mainstream media has all but ignored Hamas booby-traps in Gaza houses and buildings, only reporting on them when they kill IDF troops. The Guardian mentioned that a UN official estimated it would take a decade to remove all the explosives in Gaza - and he said that nine months ago before the extent of Hamas booby-traps were known.
Donald Trump called Gaza is a demolition site, and he is correct. If the NYT would look back on its previous articles and deign to report on Hamas booby traps, it would know that this is true.
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