IDF: Hamas seized unexploded ordnance fired during Gaza op

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that Hamas has commandeered a large cache of unexploded weapons fired by Israel into the Gaza Strip during its offensive last month.

The cache had disappeared while under guard by Hamas officials. United Nations experts had planned to dispose safely of the stockpile, which includes aircraft bombs and white phosphorous shells.

UN officials discovered earlier this week that most of the contents of a Gaza warehouse being guarded by Hamas were missing. Israel Defense Force spokesman Peter Lerner said the cache had been "commandeered by Hamas."

"We were told of the disappearance of the bombs, our understanding is that Hamas took them," he said.

UN officials said that they were urgently seeking out the location of the weapons and calling for their return. They said some of the unexploded devices were extremely volatile and could easily be set off by accident.

"We are anxious to get the return of this ordnance. It's clearly extremely dangerous and needs to be disposed of in a safe manner," Richard Miron, the senior UN spokesman in Jerusalem said. "This is our primary concern."

A UN team trained to remove and destroy unexploded ordnance has been operating in the Gaza Strip for three weeks, but its work is being held up because Israel has not approved the entry of its equipment nor an area for storing and neutralizing ordnance.

For now some of the latter, located by the Palestinian police, is being stored in locations that are dangerously close to population centers in Rafah, Khan Yunis and Gaza City. The team is waiting for permission from the IDF to use two safe areas to dispose of the ordnance.

Despite the delays, the team has made some progress that does not depend on equipment, especially in searching out unexploded ordnance ? many of which have already been collected by Hamas officials.

White phosphorus bombs found in Gaza City and in the northern Gaza Strip last month and placed in a lot near police headquarters in Gaza City, near bombs with a collective weight of 7,500 kilograms, were neutralized by being submerged in water and covered with sand.