This Palestinian boy lost his eye to an unexploded bomb. Thousands of tonnes of explosives may remain in Gaza

Yasmine Hassan · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 10, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Mohamed Hijazi squirms arsenic his begetter unwraps a bandage for him. He cries and kicks his feet, but his dada manages to yet spot the bandage implicit his eye. 

"It's nothing," Abu Mohamed tells his child, successful a last-ditch effort to calm him down. But the lad is inconsolable. 

The seven-year-old was playing extracurricular the household location successful April with his cousins successful Jabalia successful bluish Gaza, wherever his household was sheltering, erstwhile the children came crossed a weaponry that hadn't detonated. 

"It exploded successful beforehand of him," Abu Mohamed said. "We went down and recovered [him] afloat of blood." 

The kid was rushed to a adjacent infirmary to beryllium treated for his injuries and past transferred to a infirmary successful cardinal Gaza with an ophthalmology section that could execute the country helium needed. His close oculus was removed. He whitethorn yet suffer the left, too, his begetter said. 

Children drawn to shiny objects

There is nary shortage of dangers successful Gaza for kids similar Mohamed, from airstrikes to illness and malnutrition to the shootings that person go a regular occurrence astatine assistance organisation sites. But the risks posed by the unexploded bombs, mines, booby traps and different munitions that are near lying each astir Gaza are peculiarly insidious.

"They're different; they're virtually shiny," said Luke Irving, main of the UN's excavation enactment programme successful the occupied territories. "A kid would beryllium instantly drawn to that."

WATCH | Mohamed Hijazi's begetter changes the bandages implicit his eyes:

According to the Hamas-run authorities media bureau successful Gaza, determination could beryllium arsenic overmuch arsenic 6,800 tonnes of unexploded ordnance scattered passim Gaza. That's based connected United Nations estimates that astir 5 to 10 per cent of each weapons fired into the territory failed to detonate.

Irving said determination person been 222 confirmed accidents related to unexploded ordnance since Israel began bombing Gaza successful the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught that killed immoderate 1,200 radical and saw different 250 taken hostage. 

There person apt been hundreds much specified encounters, but specified incidents are not ever officially counted, said Irving. With overmuch of the aesculapian infrastructure successful ruins, doctors successful Gaza are preoccupied with trying to stabilize patients alternatively than assessing the origin of their injuries oregon deaths, helium said.  

Encounters with unexploded munitions are not ever fatal but tin permission radical with catastrophic injuries and lifelong disabilities that are challenging to negociate successful a warfare portion with a decimated health-care system.

Just 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were considered partially functional, and implicit 1,000 health-care workers had been killed arsenic of December 2024, according to Doctors Without Borders.

'Ticking clip bombs' 

In Mohamed's case, doctors told him his near oculus mightiness beryllium capable to beryllium saved, but helium would person to beryllium medically evacuated retired of Gaza for the surgery. Until then, his begetter holds his manus and guides his each step, getting him utilized to having to relearn elemental movements and tasks that helium antecedently did without thinking. 

"As a father, it's precise hard to spot Hamood [potentially] losing some his eyes and not surviving his mean life," said Abu Mohamed, utilizing his son's nickname. "I spot his cousins playing, and Hamood won't play with them. It's precise hard for me."

Operations to wide unexploded ordnance typically can't get underway until a warfare ends truthful successful Gaza, arsenic warring betwixt Hamas and Israel continues and shifts to antithetic parts of the enclave and radical are repeatedly displaced and instrumentality to heavy bombed areas, the munitions stay a persistent danger. 

And they are not casual to spot. The warfare has not lone claimed the lives of an estimated 54,000 Palestinians; it has near astir 70 per cent of the enclave's structures destroyed oregon damaged, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Mixed successful with that rubble are hundreds of "ticking clip bombs," said Irving. 

"Because it's been fired and its effectual merchandise mechanics is acceptable to explode, it's designed to either deed something, oregon there's a timer, and it volition detonate," helium said. "They're not designed to beryllium there, unexploded, and that's the risk." 

The UN Mine Action Service estimated past twelvemonth that it could instrumentality 14 years to wide Gaza of UXO.

'No dreams left'

Before the war, Mohamed was successful kindergarten, astatine the apical of his class, his begetter said. He held up a photograph of the kid taken 8 oregon 9 months earlier the accident. At the time, the household had been displaced to confederate Gaza due to the fact that of warring successful the north. Mohamed is dressed successful a achromatic tracksuit and stands successful beforehand of the structure helium and his household were sheltering in. He smiles large for the camera, a sparkle successful his eyes.

When CBC met him, helium was sitting successful their home, which had been partially destroyed successful the war. He had disposable wounds from the explosion. His elbow was wrapped successful gauze; his remaining oculus welled with tears.

Mohamed had ever wanted to survey engineering, his begetter said. At first, the mishap lone further motivated him; helium told his begetter that erstwhile helium recovered, he'd go an technologist truthful helium could assistance rebuild Gaza. But the imaginable of permanently losing his imaginativeness has weakened that resolve.

"This detonation destroyed Hamood's dreams," his begetter said. "And now, due to the fact that helium mislaid 1 oculus and whitethorn suffer the other, determination are nary dreams left."