Hamas is using some of the thousands of unexploded bombs that now litter Gaza as weapons against the invading Israeli forces. Most Hamas munitions are created from cannibalizing dud bombs dropped by Israel.
According to Israeli media, the country’s military estimated early this year that there were at least 3,000 unexploded bombs in Gaza. An Israeli officer explained that the munitions will be used by Hamas. “The situation we’ve reached is not normal. Tens of tons of explosives are lying in Gaza, waiting for Hamas,” they said.
The true number of unexploded bombs could be higher. The IDF has dropped about 40,000 bombs on Gaza since October 7, 2023. A typical dud rate is 10%; however, the Israeli military still uses some Vietnam-era missiles that could push the rate of bombs that fail to explode to 20%.
Haaretz estimates that the value of unexploded bombs is in the tens of millions of dollars.
A former Israeli official explained to The New York Times in January 2024 that Hamas makes most of their munitions from bombs dropped on Gaza that do not detonate.
“Unexploded ordnance is a main source of explosives for Hamas,” said Michael Cardash, the former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division and an Israeli police consultant. “They are cutting open bombs from Israel, artillery bombs from Israel, and a lot of them are being used, of course, and repurposed for their explosives and rockets.”
The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, has teams trained to recover the unexploded bombs, including 2,000-pound weapons. It also has the ability to break down the Israeli munitions and repurpose them as rockets, RPGs, and IEDs.
Salvaged Israeli bombs have been turned into lethal munitions by Hamas since October 7. In December 2023, remnants of an unexploded Israeli bomb were used to kill 10 soldiers, while Haaretz reports that in January, an IDF tank was destroyed by a Hamas IED created from an undetonated bomb.
While Israel has laid waste to the Strip over the past 19 months, US and Israeli intelligence have acknowledged that Hamas has retained most of its tunnel network and has recruited at least as many fighters as it has lost.
Tel Aviv recently announced a mass call-up of its reserve forces and expanded military operations in Gaza to the full occupation of the territory.
