AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Roughly 3,000 Israeli bombs that failed to detonate during airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have become a vital source of raw materials for improvised explosive devices used by the Al-Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, the Israeli news site The Marker reported.
The website, the Haaretz newspaper’s financial supplement, said the percentage of unexploded Israeli ordnance in Gaza has surged, reaching as high as 20% of the total munitions dropped during certain phases of the war.
Humanitarian and local organizations have repeatedly warned about the risks posed by unexploded ordnance left behind by months of Israeli genocide.
According to the report, investigations by the Israeli military revealed that many of the large explosions that damaged or destroyed Israeli armored vehicles -- including a tank in January -- were caused by unexploded Air Force bombs that were recycled by the Al-Qassam Brigades.
By the end of 2024, the Israeli military had carried out over 40,000 airstrikes on Gaza, the outlet reported. The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimates that between 5% and 10% of the munitions used in these operations failed to explode.
As of early 2025, the Israeli Air Force was aware of at least 3,000 unexploded bombs in Gaza, The Marker added. Each Israeli bomb weighing a ton and used in these strikes costs between $20,000 and $30,000.
“These unexploded bombs have effectively become a pipeline through which Israel, unintentionally, has transferred thousands of tons of explosives to Hamas—worth tens of millions of dollars—over the past year and a half,” the report said.
These raw materials have allowed Hamas fighters to produce thousands of explosives, The Marker said.
The use of these devices has played a central role in attacks on Zionist regime troops, resulting in rising casualties among its forces operating in Gaza, it added.
The report warned that the price could be even heavier as the Zionist regime’s so-called security cabinet pushes to expand military aggression in the Gaza Strip.
The reason behind the high failure rate of Israeli munitions is reportedly technical malfunctions. The intense pace of airstrikes has depleted the military’s supply of functional fuses—devices that trigger explosives—The Marker reported.