The Shorbasi family was sitting in their badly damaged home in Gaza City, enjoying the relative peace of the ceasefire. Then they heard an explosion and ran outside to find their six-year-old twins bleeding on the ground.
A boy named Yahya and his sister Nabila found a round object while playing. One touch - and it exploded.
"It looked like a toy," their grandfather, Taufik Shorbasi, told The Associated Press about the unexploded ordnance after the children were rushed to Shifa Hospital on Friday.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are taking advantage of the truce that began on October 10 to return to what remains of their homes. But danger still lurks as people, including children, sift through the rubble for what remains of their belongings and bodies that have so far been inaccessible, the AP reports.
Sorbasi said the family returned home after the ceasefire came into effect.
"We only got back last week," the grandfather said at Shifa Hospital, fighting back tears. "Their lives are ruined forever."
The boy, Jahja, had his right arm and leg wrapped in bandages. Nabila, who is now being treated at the Friends of Patients hospital, had a bandage on her forehead. Both children's faces were dotted with small shrapnel wounds.
A British emergency room doctor and pediatrician working at one of the hospitals told the AP that the twins had life-threatening injuries, including the loss of a hand, a hole in their intestines, broken bones and the possible loss of a leg.
She said the children underwent emergency surgery and their condition has stabilized relatively well. However, concerns remain about their recovery, as Gaza is short of medicine and medical supplies.
Health workers warn that unexploded ordnance poses a major threat to Palestinians. Two other children, Yazan and Jud Nour, were wounded on Thursday as their family inspected their home in Gaza City, Shifa Hospital said.
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The Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, said that five children were wounded by unexploded ordnance over the past week.
Luke Irving, head of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the Palestinian territories, warned that “the risk from explosives is extremely high” as aid workers and displaced Palestinians return to areas from which the Israeli military has withdrawn.
More than 53 people have been killed and hundreds injured by deadly remnants of war, a UN-run database said last week, which aid groups say is a vast underestimation, Reuters reported.
Irving told a UN briefing last week that 560 unexploded ordnance had been found during the current ceasefire, with many more still buried under rubble. He added that two years of war had left up to 60 million tons of rubble across Gaza.
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