PARIS: Unexploded bombs and shells buried in the ruins of Gaza could kill or injure thousands of people in the conflict-stricken Palestinian territory in the future, an aid organisation has warned.

The volume of ordnance dropped on Gaza during 15 months of conflict between Israel and Hamas was `mind-boggling`, said Simon Elmont, a demining expert with Handicap International Humanity & Inclusion.

`The amount of ordnance that has been fired is an enormous quantity,` Elmont said, adding that between nine and 13 per cent of munitions fail to explode on initial impact. `It is going to be tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance, that`s for sure,` he added.

He said that the contamination level in Gaza was massive, and much of the ordnance `lies mainly within the rubble and underneaththe surface of Gaza`. Hamas and Israel have agreed a ceasefire, which came into effect on Jan 19 and ushered in a fragile calm.

`Fatal` Elmont warned of the risk of multiple deaths and injuries as hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians return home to recover their belongings and try to rebuild.

`The potential is for hundreds, if not thousands, of incidents where people potentially are injured. And unfortunately, some of those injuries will be fatal,` Elmont said.

`We know that people will start to try to find their personal effects.

They will be entering damaged and destroyed buildings. They will start moving the rubble around,` Elmont added. `Our great concern now is that as they`re doing that, they will come across ordnance.` Citing recentvideofootage,theexpertsaida Gazan child had been hospitalised after another child threw a grenade at him, `believing it was a toy`.

`Making the war-ravaged territory safe from unexploded bombs is especially difficult because it is impossible to evacuate the population from the territories to be decontaminated`, he said. `The problem in Gaza is that there is nowhere to move them to,` Elmont said.

Another problem, he said, was the lack of a security force or a functioning authority to enforce safety cordons during clearance operations. `In Gaza this is unique in that those don`t exist at the moment.

Israel`s offensive has killed at least 48,181 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data provided by Hamas-run territory`s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.-AFP