Life in the battered Gaza Strip begins returning to normal Wednesday as a ceasefire holds for a second day and Egyptian mediators engage in shuttle diplomacy on extending the truce.
Shops, banks and markets reopen around the devastated Strip where residents seem more confident that the 72-hour ceasefire, which began Tuesday, would hold after a month of fighting killed 1,875 Palestinians, according to Gazan sources, and 67 on the Israeli side.
Many small businesses open for the first time in days and dozens of fishermen also head back out to sea, an AFP correspondent said.
A Palestinian woman reacts after seeing her destroyed house during a 12-hour cease-fire in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, Saturday, July 26, 2014. (Photo credit: AP/Khalil Hamra)
People start repairing damaged property, as the emergency services clear rubble and search for bodies in the worst hit areas, including in the Tuffah, Beit Hanun and Shejaiya neighbourhoods.
Nearly half a million Palestinians out of Gaza’s 1.8 million people were displaced by Israeli bombardment, and many are still sheltering in schools after their homes were flattened in the offensive. Some residential neighborhoods were particularly hard hit by the Israeli army because of the Hamas practice of emplacing rocket launchers among homes, schools, hospitals and mosques.
Palestinian deputy economy minister Taysir Amro estimates the total damage from the 29-day war at up to $6 billion (4.5 billion euros).
— AFP and Times of Israel staff
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
