The Government Media Office in Gaza has accused the Israeli army of “deliberately” leaving explosive remnants in people’s homes to increase the number of “martyrs and wounded”, calling on the international community to help deal with the remnants safely.

In a statement, it warned of repeated incidents in which bombs placed in cans have exploded in citizens’ homes injuring civilians, the last of whom was 14-year-old Muhammad Yasser Samour, who was seriously injured in Al-Zana area in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza Strip, the Middle East Monitor reported. 

According to the statement, Samour was searching for his personal belongings inside his house when he found what he thought were cans of food left by Israeli soldiers who had occupied the property, but when he attempted to open one of them, it exploded, injuring him. As a result, he has had one of his limbs amputated.

The office condemned “the [Israeli] occupation’s crime of intentionally booby-trapping the waste it leaves behind.”

“As if the [Israeli] occupation was not satisfied with killing our people through direct bombardment, it is using the deception of canned bombs to increase the number of martyrs and wounded, especially children who cannot distinguish between this waste,” it said.