CAIRO, May 19. /TASS/. The damage caused by Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip now exceeds $320 million, while more than 100,000 people living in the Palestinian enclave were forced to leave their homes, spokesman for the local authorities Salama Maarouf told a briefing on Wednesday, Palestine’s Al Ray news agency reports.
"The occupant’s aviation, artillery, and ships have carried out more than 1,810 raids and attacks since the aggression began which affected different districts of Gaza and were focused on people’s homes, residential buildings, government agencies as well as infrastructure, such as roads, electrical and energy supply networks and sewage system," he said. "It resulted in large material damages and losses which are preliminarily estimated to be $322.3 million, with $246.7 million of them being direct losses and indirectly assessed to be around $75.6 million."
According to Maarouf, the attacks provoked a complicated humanitarian situation that is primarily linked to the forced replacement of more than 107,000 people with 44,000 of them housed in temporary shelters and more than 63,000 fleeing their homes. Meanwhile, 1,335 residential buildings have been completely or partially destroyed, while 12,900 buildings sustained medium or slight damage. He noted that Israeli forces had flattened 184 residential buildings and high rises as well as 33 government agencies.
Serious damage has been inflicted on 66 schools, medical facilities and hospitals, the spokesman continued, noting that the strikes on agricultural buildings, wells, irrigation channels and cattle farms have amounted to losses of $24 million. The damage to trade and industrial facilities has reached almost $40 million, while damage to city infrastructure including roads, water supply and sewage climbed to $27 million, the energy supply network has sustained $22 million in damages, while $6.5 million of damages were caused to telecommunication and Internet network systems.
According to Maarouf, three Gaza mosques were fully destroyed, while 40 more were damaged as well as a church building and offices of charity foundations and organizations.
The exchange of missile strikes between Israel and Palestinian radicals from the Gaza Strip began on May 10 following an outbreak of violence near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City in early May. Clashes between the Palestinians and the Israeli police were triggered by an Israeli court ruling to seize dwelling houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood from Arab families who have been living there for more than 50 years in favor of Jewish resettlers who had reportedly owned these buildings before 1948. During this time, the radicals have fired more than 3,500 missiles at Israel, in response, Israel’s armed forces have bombed hundreds of targets in the enclave. According to the latest data, the Gaza Strip reports 219 fatalities, while at least 12 Israelis were killed.