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Palestinians in a car with their belongings drive past a destroyed house in Rafah's. |
Ruth Pollard
Gaza City: Amidst the vast moonscape of grey rubble, the bloated carcasses of dead animals and the occasional splash of colour from a child’s toy, Gazans returned to what was left of their homes as another 72-hour ceasefire began.
Between 16,000 and 18,000 housing units have been severely damaged or totally destroyed, the United Nations Development Program estimates, leaving tens of thousands not just homeless, but with nothing left but the clothes they were able to evacuate with.
On a wider scale, almost every piece of critical infrastructure, from electricity to water to sewage, has been seriously compromised by either direct hits from Israeli air strikes and shelling or collateral damage.
As many as 520,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Israel’s nearly four-week long military campaign and with this temporary ceasefire, many are only now able to fully grasp the extent of the devastation in their neighbourhoods.
Shocked families wordlessly picked through the rubble of their houses in northern towns of Shujaiya and Beit Hanoun, where the smell of death still hangs in the air.
Rescue workers are still pulling bodies from under rubble – after successive humanitarian ceasefires broke down over the last week, there has been little access until now to some of the worst-affected neighbourhoods.
There was no celebration of the ceasefire – the first to have lasted more than a few hours since this conflict began on July 8 – or of the fact that Israeli ground troops had withdrawn from Gaza after announcing they had destroyed 32 Hamas tunnels and significant weapons caches.
Instead, Gaza was blanketed in grief and loss.
Gaza officials say that 1834 Palestinians have died in the conflict, most of them civilians, including more than 400 children. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed since fighting began on July 8. Read more
Gaza City: Amidst the vast moonscape of grey rubble, the bloated carcasses of dead animals and the occasional splash of colour from a child’s toy, Gazans returned to what was left of their homes as another 72-hour ceasefire began.
Between 16,000 and 18,000 housing units have been severely damaged or totally destroyed, the United Nations Development Program estimates, leaving tens of thousands not just homeless, but with nothing left but the clothes they were able to evacuate with.
On a wider scale, almost every piece of critical infrastructure, from electricity to water to sewage, has been seriously compromised by either direct hits from Israeli air strikes and shelling or collateral damage.
As many as 520,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Israel’s nearly four-week long military campaign and with this temporary ceasefire, many are only now able to fully grasp the extent of the devastation in their neighbourhoods.
Shocked families wordlessly picked through the rubble of their houses in northern towns of Shujaiya and Beit Hanoun, where the smell of death still hangs in the air.
Rescue workers are still pulling bodies from under rubble – after successive humanitarian ceasefires broke down over the last week, there has been little access until now to some of the worst-affected neighbourhoods.
There was no celebration of the ceasefire – the first to have lasted more than a few hours since this conflict began on July 8 – or of the fact that Israeli ground troops had withdrawn from Gaza after announcing they had destroyed 32 Hamas tunnels and significant weapons caches.
Instead, Gaza was blanketed in grief and loss.
Gaza officials say that 1834 Palestinians have died in the conflict, most of them civilians, including more than 400 children. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed since fighting began on July 8. Read more
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