In October 2025, eleven-year-old Majd Abu Habi was returning home from school in Khan Yunis, a major city in southern Gaza, when his life changed completely. While playing with his friends outside, Majd spotted a small metallic object that looked like a remote control, and approached it out of curiosity. Seconds later, it exploded in his face, leaving him with life-altering injuries.
The explosion caused burns across 40 percent of his body, including third-degree burns on his right side and disfiguring second-degree burns to his face. Majd’s mother tells The Progressive that the burns to his legs and lower body left him completely unable to move. What’s more, the prolonged exposure of his wounds combined with inadequate sterilization and medical care led him to develop several dangerous infections, which his mother says have left him constantly exhausted and feverish.
Majd’s story is not an isolated case in Gaza, where the dangers of unexploded ordnance left behind by the war have been a growing cause for concern. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that Israel has dropped nearly 200,000 tons of explosives on the enclave during the war. An estimated 71,000 tons remain unexploded and are scattered across the area—buried underground, lying in streets, hidden beneath rubble, and trapped inside damaged buildings. These explosives, Basal tells The Progressive, have been deliberately left behind by Israeli forces as a constant threat to civilians.
In May 2024, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) stated that the war had already left behind nearly thirty-seven million tons of rubble, and warned that it could take up to fourteen years to defuse the unexploded bombs. Basal says Civil Defense teams receive daily reports from residents about suspicious objects and unexploded remnants of war. Engineering teams are sometimes able to deal with certain explosives using the limited resources available. But in many cases, Basal says, the teams are unable to defuse or remove them due to their complexity and severe shortages of necessary equipment.
Basal says dealing with heavy unexploded ordnance requires specialized engineering equipment, cranes, and transport vehicles <that are unavailable in Gaza, adding that Israel continues to block the entry of such equipment into the territory. Local engineering teams have not previously dealt with many of the types of explosives used during the recent war, particularly newer and heavier bombs. According to Basal, teams have managed to dismantle fewer than 10 percent of the smaller explosives, while heavy ordnance remains beyond their operational capacity.
He warns that search operations beneath the rubble place rescue workers and civilians at constant risk, as even a small mistake or pressure on an explosive device could trigger a deadly blast. Israeli authorities have not provided maps identifying the locations of unexploded ordnance, arguing that sharing such maps could help reduce casualties and accelerate clearance operations.
At an October 2025 press conference, Luke Irving, head of UNMAS in the Palestinian territories, said that 328 victims of explosive ordnance had been reported to the service since October 2023, though he believed that figure to be a significant undercount. Children like Majd are among the most vulnerable to these explosives, as they may lack awareness of the danger.
At Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, doctors struggled to save Majd’s life due to severe shortages of medicine and medical supplies. His mother says the hospital performed skin graft surgeries, but they were only partially successful. Doctors also faced difficulties obtaining essential medications, including intravenous painkillers and antibiotics. As his condition worsened, doctors advised the family that he urgently needed medical treatment outside Gaza. Following appeals by Majd’s family to international and humanitarian organizations, Majd was evacuated to Jordan on November 13 of last year.
Since then, Majd’s condition has improved with proper medical care. His burns have reportedly decreased to around 20 percent, but he still suffers from bacterial infections and remains unable to walk or stand. Majd’s mother describes the nearly eighteen-hour evacuation journey to the hospital in Jordan as “long and exhausting.”
For injured civilians, adequate health care options are all but non-existent: As recently as April 2026, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has described the health care system in the Gaza Strip as almost completely collapsed.