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Gaza City, Gaza – On May 19, just after midnight, a reconnaissance missile struck the roof of the Muhareb family home in Rafah, south of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Two minutes later, an Israeli warplane fired another missile, which crashed over two floors of the house, but somehow without exploding.
“My brother and his family, who live on the second floor, were wounded as a result of a reconnaissance missile,” Waseem Muhareb told Al Jazeera. “My four-month-old baby was in a coma for two days, and Layan’s eight-year-old nephew was in the intensive care unit for 10 days of burns throughout his body.”
The spacious house of the Muhareb family, which was home to 36 adults and children, was dilapidated. The second missile crashed into one of the children’s bedrooms before landing on the first floor.
“No warning was given,” said Waseem, whose family now lives in rented accommodation nearby. “The whole ordeal happened in three minutes.”
[Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]
Risks and risks
The next day, the bombing squad arrived and removed the unexploded ordnance and traces of the reconnaissance launcher.
The Interior Ministry has carried out 1,200 missions to neutralize, dismantle and destroy unexploded ordnance and dangerous ammunition in residential areas in Gaza since May 10, when Israel began its 11-day bombing of the coastal enclave.
Following the escalation of violence, Israeli forces cracked down on protesters in the company of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, issued an ultimatum for Israeli forces to withdraw from the area around the holy site, which is also sacred to Jews, as it is called a temple mountain.
After the ultimatum expired, Hamas fired several rockets at Jerusalem and soon after Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza. Health authorities reported that the Israeli bombing continued for 11 days and killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children. Rockets fired by armed groups in Gaza killed at least 13 people in Israel. Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire on May 21.
It was caused by the bombing of Gaza extensive damage including the destruction of 1,800 homes, 74 public buildings, 53 educational facilities and 33 media offices. Damage to the desalination plant has left more than 250,000 Palestinians without clean drinking water.
Captain Mohammed Meqdad, an explosives engineer at the Gaza Interior Ministry, told Al Jazeera that the management of dropping 70 bombs had not suffered any casualties in its work since May 10, despite the lack of essential protective equipment.
“The team does not have protective vests or high-tech equipment that could reveal the presence of explosives,” Meqdad said. “They just have simple equipment, like a toolbox that can be found in almost every home.”
The engineer said it is forbidden for 13-year-old Israelis to enter the protective equipment used by bombing groups in Gaza under a crippling blockade of Gaza.
Meqdad said the main risk associated with the job was the possibility of leading the group in the Israeli attack.
“The second danger is the type of ammunition that Israel has thrown at them, how dangerous they are and whether the assigned technicians are able to measure all of this with the rigorous equipment at their disposal,” Meqdad said.
The final step in the process of collecting and neutralizing the unexploded ordnance is to take it to the central warehouse in Rafah so that it can be destroyed.
Meqdad said the latest offensives have witnessed a new type of weapon used for the first time on the Gaza Strip: the GBU-31 and GBU-39 Joint Direct Attack Ammunition (JDAM) explosives. The two-ton explosives were developed for access to heavily fortified military sites, to house high-rise buildings that housed apartment buildings, and to be used for commercial and media offices.
Captain Mohammed Meqdad shows the remains of Israeli leaders who exploded in the Abu Al-Ouf building in an attack on Wehda Street. [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]Workouts and field experience
The bombing group was formed in 1996 when the Palestinian Authority ruled Gaza. The first team was given a course by U.S. experts and in 2006, the team was strengthened by the addition of more engineers and technicians.
After the deadly Israeli 2008-2009 offensive In Gaza, the UN Mines Action Service (UNMAS) began its work in addition to training the Ministry of the Interior to dispose of bombs inland.
Between 2014 and 2020, UNMAS responded to 876 requests (EODs) for the removal of explosives, directly removed and destroyed 150 high-explosive air bombs containing 29,500 kilograms of explosive materials, and helped clean up 7,340 war explosives (ERW) items.
Meqdad said the new staff involved in the bomb disposal management is receiving training from current staff, based on years of experience in the field.
“For the last 10-11 years, no one working in this field has left Gaza to receive training abroad,” he said.
An exhibition of explosive remnants of war (ERW) is on display at the headquarters of the explosives engineering unit in Gaza City. [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]‘Every day can be your last’
Asad al-Aloul, who has been the chief of staff for the bombing for the past eight years, said their job is the most dangerous within the security division, which includes police and internal security agencies.
“Choosing to work in this field is our opportunity and a mark of honor, as we remove the harms and risks that threaten our citizens,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Working in explosives engineering means you are a martyr,” he added. “Every day you go to work can be the last day on earth, because any mistake you make will be the last mistake you make, without exception.”
Three bomb disposal technicians in 2014 they were killed, in addition to a Palestinian foreign journalist and translator on stage, after an attempt to deactivate a missile in northern Gaza.
Despite the dangers of the job, al-Aloul said he did not plan to stop the job.
“Who will take another and protect our children from injury or death, knowing all these dangers?” he said. “We work to provide a better future for future generations so they don’t have to live with amputations caused by an exploding missile or bomb.”
“Every day you see death, but the Savior is God. It is an honor to die while defending our people. “
Palestinian children were playing on an unexploded ordnance missile fired by bomb disposal management [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]
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