Residents of Handarat Camp for Palestinian refugees, in Aleppo, continue to voice deep concernsover their children’s safety due to the spread of unexploded war remnants across and around the camp.

Last year, a Palestinian child was pronounced dead after a cluster munition went Off in Syria’s Handarat Camp. The casualty—Shaifq Yakoob—succumbed to the wounds he sustained in the blast while he was playing outdoors. He was rushed to a hospital, but breathed his last shortly after.

Hundreds of the internationally-prohibited cluster grenades have been detected in Handarat Camp due to the heavy onslaughts launched by the Syrian and Russian fighter jets on the area.

Scores of Palestinian refugees were killed in offensives launched on refugee camps across war-torn Syria using such internationally-prohibited weapons such as phosphorous-filled bombs and cluster grenades.

Available data from the International Committee of the Red Cross indicates that each year, large numbers of civilians are killed and injured by explosive remnants of war, such as artillery shells, mortars, grenades, bombs and rockets, left behind after an armed conflict.

For the civilians and communities in war-affected Syria, the presence of these weapons represents an ongoing threat. Many innocent civilians, including Palestinian refugees, have lost their lives and limbs by disturbing or inadvertently coming into contact with explosive remnants of war. These weapons have also hindered reconstruction and threatened economic livelihood. Houses, hospitals and schools cannot be rebuilt until such weapons are cleared.

Local communities often have no means of dealing with the problem themselves. Most do not have the technical capacity or the resources to clear explosive remnants of war safely and few have the resources needed to deal with the psychological, medical and rehabilitative needs of victims.