BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s offensive on Gaza has caused over $5 billion of damage to homes and infrastructure in the Strip, the Minister of Public Works said …
Some 10,000 homes have been completely destroyed, and 30,000 homes partially destroyed, al-Hasayneh said.
“The three areas that have undergone the most intense destruction are Shujaiyya, Beit Hanoun, and Abasan,” the minister said.
“Ministry crews were astonished when they arrived to Shujaiyya, where some 110,000 people live. Sixty percent of the homes were completely destroyed, especially those in the eastern part of the neighborhood.”
The minister said it would take $5 billion to rebuild structures alone, “not including possessions, like furniture and cars.”
“The offensive destroyed buildings belonging to Gaza governorates, in addition to police stations and national security buildings,” al-Hasayneh said.
The diesel containers belonging to Gaza’s power plant have been destroyed as well, he said.
Al-Hasayneh says the “containers will cost $25 million, and there are ten power lines that supply Gaza with power and have been cut off” as well.
He added that 70 percent water wells had been completely destroyed, “in addition to waste water lines.”
According to UN figures, up to 485,000 people — a quarter of Gaza’s population — has been forced to leave their homes throughout the assault on the Strip.
Many of them will return to find their homes destroyed or damaged.
Mirrored from Maan News Agency
—–
Related video added by Juan Cole:
RT: “‘Gaza infrastructure on brink of destruction’ – HRW researcher”
Why is the international community so reluctant to confront the Israelis for their war crimes and demand the payment of reparation for the enormous damage that they have caused? Over 1900 Palestinians who have been killed cannot be brought back to life, but surely Israel should pay for the healthcare of some 10,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, who were injured.
Why do people keep turning with hope to the notion that there is anything like an “international community?” The Rulers know it is all about who has the power. The people who populate the bureaucracies that conjugate to make up the Empire, trading memos and talking over the espresso bar and doing lunch with each other, immune to even the sounds of the detonations, let alone the screams and cries, lost in their internal fascinations and concatenations of incremental personal and group “gain,” they know the truth, such as it is in an age where power manufactures its own reality (heh, heh).
Decency and comity and empathy, even survival-level self-interest, the stuff that ought to be the ligaments of an “international community,” are pretty clearly minority emotions and aspirations, far as I can tell. To be invoked by the weak to try to restrain the Mighty. You don’t get rich and famous pursuing or selling any of those, and we have all these Rev. Martin Luther Avenues and Streets and Boulevards, but how many humans know or care to know much at all about the messages behind the maudlin? Except as something to be submerged, suborned and obscured…
Those countless MLK Blvds have always seemed like cheap sops, to distract the downtrodden with a cheap and meaningless gesture. For meaningful change the overall system, with all its entrenched momentum and vested interests, has to be challenged and uprooted.
Maybe its best to recognize things for what they are, then make whatever personal moves are appropriate. Frustration comes from trying to make things something they’re not. One might apply this thought to any frustration they may feel with recent Israeli behavior: there will be less cognitive dissonance, and you can focus better on what needs to be done, once you accept things for what they really are.
Perhaps an irrelevant thought: What would be the effect of suing Israel for the damages they wrought? The Amercans seem so capable of taking other’s assets. At least it might be a good protest action.