"We estimate that there are 37 million tons of rubble, which is about 300 kilos of rubble per square meter" in the Gaza Strip, which before the war was densely populated and urbanized, explained Pehr Lodhammar, head of UNMAS, the United Nations agency responsible for demining.

Assuming the use of a hundred trucks, "it would take 14 years to clear it," Lodhammar stressed, during the regular UN press conference in Geneva.

The head of the United Nations Mine Action Service stressed that the unexploded ordnance is mixed with the rubble, which makes the task much more difficult.

Lodhammar estimated that "at least 10%" of the munitions fired during a conflict do not explode, thus constituting a lasting threat to people and teams responsible for searching to recover the bodies of victims, as well as to workers involved in cleaning up the rubble.

The representative said that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and non-governmental organizations recently met in Amman to discuss the best way to deal with this rubble mixed with explosives.

"The goal is to prepare for what may happen and for an intervention in Gaza," he said.

The official recalled that he had already dealt with the same type of problem in Iraq, "but on a smaller scale."

In the Palestinian enclave, "65% of the buildings destroyed are residential," he estimated.

On October 7, Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, which caused the death of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages.

In response, Israel promised to annihilate the Palestinian Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007, and launched an offensive that has already caused more than 34,300 deaths, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

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