Quoted by Al Jazeera, United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) mission chief Luke Irving warned of the risk.

The official estimated that destroying them will take a long time, but stated that it is necessary to gradually restore normality in life in the Strip, devastated by two years of Israeli aggression.

This week, the NGO Handicap International also warned that Israeli unexploded ordnance poses a huge threat to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

The risks are great, warned in a statement Anne-Claire Yaeesh, director of the group for the Palestinian territories, after recalling that tens of thousands of tons of explosives were thrown against the area during the last two years.

The layers of rubble and levels of accumulation are also very large, said Handicap International, a non-governmental organization specializing in mine clearance and assistance to victims of such weapons.

For its part, the NGO HALO Trust, which has the same objective, requested international funds to cover the cost of sending bomb-removal specialists to Gaza, a process that could take five years in its initial phase.

abo/mem/rob