Organisation will take advantage of ceasefire
A Scots charity is heading to Gaza to help clear the region of landmines.
Staff from Dumfries-based Halo Trust will start work in the country in the coming weeks.
The charity will send around 50 teams to the war-ravished region.
With an initial five-year project, costing around £60million a year, more than 100 specialists will be on the ground for the safe removal of explosives- but they'll also deliver education sessions to teach families how to keep safe.
Camps housing displaced Gazans, schools, hospitals and areas with power supply issues, or water or sanitation projects will be given priority with the charity predicting a required presence in the region for decades.
Paul McCann, global head of programme communications at the Trust, said: “We estimate it will take about 50 bomb disposal teams to deal with the contamination.
“We’d expect to have about 100 international bomb disposal experts. Each of the 50 teams would have two experts each and then probably several hun-dred support staff on top of that.
“We have already been in Gaza with small teams who worked a small window when there was a ceasefire earlier in the year doing rapid assessments in areas where there is a large concentration of people.
“Now there is a ceasefire, the opportunity we have envisioned is an operation where we rapidly scale up international bomb disposal experts going in.
“In terms of cost our rapid assessment for a team that size, with all the support the logistics you are looking at something like £60million a year for maybe five years. The priorities in the initial phases we’d expect to be where there are large concentrations of people, in schools that have been damaged, tented camps, or working next to hospitals and clinics so they can reopen.
“We would maybe work where there are power supply issues, or water or sanitation projects.
“The priority list is always what would have the biggest humanitarian impact first. We hope to start within weeks but it’s a question of stability on the ground and always safety for our staff.”
Paul, who hails from Scotland but now lives in the Cotswolds, added: “We know that for example in Germany they still have a multi-million Euro budget for finding stuff from World War II that has perhaps lain buried for a long time until someone digs up a field or builds a house.
“So you will need this second phase in Gaza where you will need this residual bomb disposal presence for decades.”
An estimated 1.9million people have been internally displaced during two years of conflict during Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion which has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians.
Some 84 per cent of buildings in Gaza are estimated by the UN to have been destroyed in the fighting, while the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed.
As people now may try to return home, the Trust’s experts will be on the ground providing expert assistance.
