Gaza starts to reopen

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.

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