The Shorbasi family had recently returned to their severely damaged home in Gaza City, following the relative calm that had ensued with the fragile ceasefire.
Outside the home, their son Yahya was playing with his sister Nabila, when they found a round object. One of them touched it, and the catastrophe was a fact.
The explosion was loud. The injuries life-threatening.
It was like a toy, says their grandfather Tawfiq Shorbasi about the undetonated ammunition, after the siblings were rushed to Shifa Hospital on Friday.
It was extremely difficult.
UN warns of explosions
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have taken the opportunity to return to what remains of their homes during the ceasefire that came into force on October 10. But the danger is far from over when people, including children, search through the rubble for lost belongings and remains of people who were buried and could not be reached until now.
Luke Irving, head of the UN's mine clearance organization Unmas in the Palestinian territories, has warned that "the risk of explosions is very high" in a situation where both aid workers and people who have been forced to flee their homes are returning to areas where the Israeli military has left.
"A death trap"
Until October 7 this year, Unmas has registered cases where at least 52 Palestinians have been killed and another 267 injured as a result of undetonated ammunition in Gaza, since the war broke out two years ago. Unmas emphasizes, however, that the actual death toll may be significantly higher.
The siblings Yahya and Nabila were operated on urgently at the hospital and their condition has stabilized. But the injuries are serious and include a blown-off hand, holes in an intestine, fractures and a leg that may need to be amputated, says the British doctor Harriett. She works at a hospital in the area and does not want to give her last name because her employer has not given her permission to speak to the media.
This is a death trap. We talk about a ceasefire, but the killing has not stopped, she says.
