GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — As the Shorbasi family gathered in their heavily damaged Gaza City residence, the temporary peace brought by the ceasefire offered a rare moment of respite. However, tranquility was shattered by a sudden explosion that sent them rushing outside, only to find their 6-year-old twins, Yahya and Nabila, injured and bleeding on the ground.

The children had stumbled upon a seemingly innocuous round object while playing, which detonated upon contact.

“It looked like a toy,” recounted their grandfather, Tawfiq Shorbasi, speaking of the unexploded ordnance after the twins were hastily taken to Shifa hospital on Friday. “It was a horrific experience.”

In the aftermath of the ceasefire initiated on October 10, countless Palestinians are cautiously returning to their homes, or what little remains of them. Yet, peril persists as families, including young ones, comb through debris to salvage belongings or recover bodies that had been inaccessible.

According to Shorbasi, the family returned home once the ceasefire commenced. Gaza City had been a primary target during the Israeli military’s final offensive before the ceasefire agreement was brokered between Israel and Hamas.

“We’ve just returned last week,” the grandfather said at Shifa hospital, fighting back tears. “Their lives have been ruined forever.”

The boy, Yahya, lay on a hospital bed with his right arm and leg wrapped in bandages. Nabila, now being treated at Patient’s Friends hospital, had a bandaged forehead.

Both children’s faces were freckled with tiny shrapnel wounds.

A British emergency physician and pediatrician working at one of the hospitals told The Associated Press the twins had life-threatening injuries including a lost hand, a hole in the bowel, broken bones and potential loss of a leg.

The children underwent emergency surgery and their conditions have relatively stabilized, the doctor said. But concerns remain about their recovery because of Gaza’s vast lack of medicine and medical supplies, said Dr. Harriet, who declined to give her last name because her employer hadn’t authorized her to speak to the media.

“Now it’s just a waiting game so I hope that they both survive, but at this point in time I can’t say, and this is a common recurrence,” she said.

Health workers call unexploded ordnance a major threat to Palestinians. Two other children, Yazan and Jude Nour, were wounded on Thursday while their family was inspecting their home in Gaza City, according to Shifa hospital.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government, said five children were wounded by unexploded ordnance over the past week, including one in the southern city of Khan Younis.

“This is the death trap,” Dr. Harriet said. “We’re talking about a ceasefire, but the killing hasn’t stopped.”

Already over 68,500 Palestinians have died in the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Luke Irving, head of the U.N. Mine Action Service, UNMAS, in the Palestinian territories, has warned that “explosive risk is incredibly high” as both aid workers and displaced Palestinians return to areas vacated by the Israeli military in Gaza.

As of Oct. 7, UNMAS had documented at least 52 Palestinians killed and 267 others wounded by unexploded ordnance in Gaza since the war began. UNMAS, however, said the toll could be much higher.

Irving told a United Nations briefing last week 560 unexploded ordnance items have been found during the current ceasefire with many more under the rubble. Two years of war have left up to 60 million tons of debris across Gaza, he added.

In the coming weeks, additional international de-mining experts are expected to join efforts to collect unexploded ordnance in Gaza, he said.

“As expected, we’re now finding more items because we’re getting out more; the teams have more access,” he said.

Friday’s explosion that wounded the twins happened outside a multistory residential building that, like many across Gaza, stood badly damaged, with rubble piled outside. At the top of its outer steps was a small hole in the concrete from the blast.

“We ran outside and found the boy thrown to one side and the girl to the other,” said their uncle, Ziad Al-Shorbasi.

As he spoke, another small child stood in the same doorway.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.

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