Israel war leaves thousands of Gaza vehicles destroyed

Israel’s recently-ended offensive on the Gaza Strip resulted in a 30-million-dollars loss in the enclave’s transportation sector, the Palestinian government said on Sunday.

Yasser al-Shanti, a spokesman for the Palestinian Transportation Ministry, told a press conference in Gaza City that 3,550 privately-owned vehicles worth of $11 million have been completely or partially destroyed during Israel’s 51-day war in the coastal enclave, which ended with an August 26 cease-fire deal between Israelis and Palestinian factions.

Al-Shanti also said that 160 government vehicles worth $2.5 million have been damaged, including 40 vehicles which were completely destroyed.

He went on to say that Israeli bombings also destroyed 11 Palestinian ambulance vehicles and partially damaged 27.

The cost of rebuilding and developing the Gaza Strip following Israel’s devastating operation has been estimated at $7.8 billion, a senior Palestinian official said last week.

An international donor conference for the reconstruction of the embattled Gaza Strip is scheduled for next month in Egypt.

Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip, which began on July 7 with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from Gaza, left some 2,147 Gazans dead and 11,000 injured – the vast majority of them civilians – while partially or completely destroying thousands of residential structures across the territory.

According to Israeli figures, 67 Israeli soldiers and five civilians were killed over the course of the operation – the highest military death toll suffered by Israel since it lost 119 troops in its 2006 war on Lebanon.