By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Egyptian mediators sought to reinforce a day-old ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants on Saturday, and aid officials appealed for a period of calm to start tackling a humanitarian crisis in Gaza after 11 days of fighting. The ceasefire, which began before dawn on Friday, was still holding on Saturday evening, enabling officials to start assessing the scale of the damage. Despite confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters at a Jerusalem holy site on Friday, there were no reports of Hamas rocket launches from Gaza or Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian enclave overnight or on Saturday. Rockets fired by Hamas and other Islamist militant groups paralysed towns in southern Israel during the hostilities, and caused widespread panic, but did much less damage than the bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials put reconstruction costs at tens of millions of dollars in Gaza, where me
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People clean the streets of debris beside a building that was previously damaged in an air-strike following a cease-fire reached after an 11-day war between Gaza s Hamas rulers and Israel, in Gaza City, Friday, May 21, 2021. John Minchillo
People salvage valuable items from inside the severely damaged Al-Jawhara building following a cease-fire reached after an 11-day war between Gaza s Hamas rulers and Israel, in Gaza City, Friday, May 21, 2021. John Minchillo
People enter the severely damaged Al-Jawhara building to salvage valuable items following a cease-fire reached after an 11-day war between Gaza s Hamas rulers and Israel, in Gaza City, Friday, May 21, 2021.
Khalil Hamra / The Associated Press May 22, 2021 - 5:07 AM
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip â The United Nations says approximately 800,000 people in Gaza do not have regular access to clean piped water, as nearly 50% of the water network was damaged in the recent fighting.
Quoting Gazaâs public works and housing ministry, the U.N. âs office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said nearly 17,000 residential and commercial units have been damaged or destroyed in the 11-day campaign.
These include 769 housing and commercial units that have been rendered uninhabitable, at least 1,042 units in some 258 buildings which have been destroyed and another 14,538 units that have suffered minor damage.