Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza has caused an estimated damaged of almost 2 billion US dollars, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Monday, noting the strip had become a "disaster-stricken area."
At least 22,000 private and public buildings were either damaged or destroyed, PCBS director Loai Shabaneh said in a news release, reported dpa.
Aside from the infrastructure, the economy too suffered heavy damage.
"The aggression has destroyed public service infrastructure, public buildings, societies, private buildings as well as health, educational and sports building and even UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) institutions, totally paralyzing social and economic life," he said.
Shabaneh estimated the initial losses caused to the economy and infrastructure since the start of the assault on December 27 until the call for a ceasefire on Saturday at over 1.9 billion dollars.
The hardest hit economic sector was agriculture, he said, with as much as 80 per cent of agricultural land was destroyed.
He said 4,100 buildings were totally destroyed and another 17,000, including schools and hospitals, partially destroyed, making them unsafe for use. Together, they make up 14 per cent of all buildings in the Gaza Strip.
Shabaneh expected the reconstruction process and reviving the economy to take at least 12 months.