Unexploded Ordnance in Northern Israel Highlights Vast Threat
Translated & summarized from Maariv by baba
Over 31,000 munitions have been fired at Israel from Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, and Yemen since the war began. A recent incident involving unexploded ordnance in the Ramim Ridge highlights the danger of undetected munitions scattered across the country. Analyst Avi Ashkenazi criticizes populist decisions to close hiking trails, arguing that the public must also take responsibility for safety. He warns that the threat of unexploded ordnance is widespread, including in urban areas.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Over 31,000 munitions have been fired at Israel from multiple fronts since the war began.
- Unexploded ordnance poses a significant, often undetected, threat across Israel, including urban areas.
- Analyst Avi Ashkenazi criticizes populist decisions to close hiking trails as ineffective.
- Locating unexploded ordnance is difficult due to terrain and vegetation, especially in northern and southern Israel.
- The public is urged to share responsibility for safety regarding unexploded ordnance.
An incident involving unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the Ramim Ridge area of northern Israel underscores the immense scale of munitions fired into the country during the ongoing war, according to analyst Avi Ashkenazi. Over 31,000 munitions have been fired at Israel from various fronts since the conflict began. These include 10,200 items from Gaza, 20,000 from Lebanon, 1,200 from Iran, and 90 from Syria and Yemen combined. While police sappers and IDF engineering corps units have collected most of these, Ashkenazi warns that some unexploded ordnance has landed in areas of the Galilee, the south, and even central Israel without detonating or being discovered. He points out the difficulty in locating these items, especially in the Galilee and Gaza periphery, due to dense vegetation and terrain. Ashkenazi criticizes populist decisions by police command and local authorities to close hiking trails, calling them "superficial" and "not serious." He argues that closing off the entire country is impractical and that the public shares responsibility for its safety, likening it to knowing not to disturb rocks where snakes might hide. The analyst notes that cluster munitions with dispersing warheads have been fired at numerous cities across Israel, questioning the logic of closing trails when such threats exist in urban areas. He suggests that such closures are akin to the restrictive COVID-19 lockdowns.
