GAZA'S HURT LOCKER HEROES

A SCOTS-BASED mine-clearing charity backed by Princess Diana is to send experts to Gaza within weeks to search the warzone for leftover explosives.

- BY JENNIFER HYLAND

The Halo Trust, which deactivates explosives in countries facing the aftermath of military conflict, is set to send around 50 teams to Gaza within weeks.

It comes following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

With an initial five-year project, costing about £60million a year, more than 100 specialists will be on the ground for the safe removal of explosives as well as delivering education sessions to teach families how to keep safe.

Camps housing displaced Gazans, schools and hospitals as well as areas with power supply issues, or water or sanitation projects, are to be given priority with the charity predicting a required presence in the region for decades.

Paul McCann, global head of programme communications at the Trust, said: "We estimate it will take about 50 bomb disposal teams to deal with the contamination.

"We'd expect to have about 100 international bomb disposal experts. Each of the 50 teams would have two experts each and then probably several hundred support staff on top of that.

"We have already been in Gaza with small teams, who worked a small window when there was a ceasefire earlier in the year doing rapid assessments in areas where there is a large concentration of people.

"Now there is a ceasefire, the opportunity we have envisioned is an operation where we rapidly scale up international bomb disposal experts going in.

"In terms of cost, our rapid assessment for a team that size, with all the support the logistics you are looking at something like £60million a year for maybe five years.

"The priorities in the initial phases we'd expect to be where there are large concentrations of people, in schools that have been damaged, tented camps, or working next to hospitals and clinics so they can reopen.