An unexploded missile fired by an Israeli aircraft lies among the rubble in the northern Gaza Strip    [File: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]

Copenhagen, November 26 (RHC)-- The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is warning that a lack of aid reaching Gaza is forcing Palestinians to search through destroyed buildings for basic necessities, putting them at risk of death or injury from unexploded bombs.

Seventy percent of people surveyed in Gaza said they had returned to areas that had seen active fighting, putting them at higher risk from unexploded bombs, a new DRC report found.

Twenty-three percent knew someone who had been injured or killed by unexploded bombs, including children who had played with them and people mistakenly picking them up when gathering firewood.

Lilu Thapa, DRC’s Executive Regional Director for the Middle East said people in Gaza face the “threat of starvation due to an almost total blockade of aid and goods” alongside the “ever-present danger of unexploded ordnance, a threat that will stay long after the fighting subsides.”

Inaction to reach a ceasefire in Gaza “looks more like absolute indifference by the day”, Thapa added, describing the continued lack of accountability for Israel as a “[stark illustration] of a global double standard”.