DUBAI, April 30, 2024 (BSS/TASS) - Making the Gaza Strip safe from unexploded ordnance could take at least 14 years, Qatar's Al Jazeera television reported, citing the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to UN estimates, Israel's destruction of Gaza has generated around 37.5 mln metric tons of debris across the enclave, the bulk of this being laced with unexploded bombs and other munitions.

Therefore, clearing the war rubble in Gaza could take 14 years, with areas in the northern Gaza Strip being hardest hit, followed by Khan Younis, Deir al Balah and Rafah.

"Over 200 days of relentless violence and devastation have further exacerbated psychological needs [in Gaza], particularly among more than a million children estimated by UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund - TASS) as requiring mental health and psycho-social support," Al Jazeera quoted OCHA as saying in its latest flash update.

Tensions flared up in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly.

Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City.

Israel announced a total seige of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering rocket attacks on Gaza as well as some districts in Lebanon and Syria, and then started a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.