Gaza, March 13, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - A team of explosives experts with the Britain-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG) has entered the Gaza Strip and started destroying what remains of the white phosphorus bombs used by Israel during its last war.

A member of the Technical Office in Explosives Engineering in the Gaza Ministry of Interior, Ahmed Osman, said that two experts affiliated with the United Nations Wednesday joined the international team that has worked since the end of the war in January 2009 to destroy the dangerous remains of the bombs.

Osman explained that the UN offered via its representative in Jerusalem to help destroy the bombs, and they were approved by the Gaza government. There is close cooperation between the government's explosives engineering team and the international team.

The process of destroying the nearly 100 white phosphorus bombs that remain started on Wednesday and will last for about three months at least. The process is taking place in Etzmona, a former settlement west Rafah, far from the population. The government's explosives engineering unit has already successfully destroyed a lot of other bombs.

Translated from SAFA
Photo: Mohammed Asad