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For Gaza, Stupor Comes After War

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The New York Times

Published: January 25, 2009

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - One week after the war with Israel and Hamas stopped - each side declaring a unilateral cease-fire - Gaza remains in a kind of stupor. There are numbers, of course, to describe its misery - 4,000 homes destroyed, 21,000 badly damaged, 100,000 people homeless, according to several aid agencies - but they do not tell the full story.

Most of Gaza, especially the capital, Gaza City, remains largely intact. But the areas where Israeli tanks and artillery poured in at the start of the ground war are devastated: Juhr el Dik to the east, Beit Lahiya, El Atatra and sections of Jabaliya to the north, as well as the outer Gaza City neighborhoods of Zeitoun and Toufah.

Homes have been blown up or bulldozed, their squashed furniture visible beneath layers of collapsed concrete. Factories - for paint, dairy products, soft drinks - have been smashed. Schools have 10-foot holes in their walls. Wedding halls are blackened hulks. The American International School, a private institution in northern Gaza, has been destroyed. Mosques are gone.

Moreover, in addition to the buildings that housed Hamas' main security networks, institutions like the parliament, the main ministries, the central prison and nearly all the police stations are crushed beyond repair.

The impression left from the appearance of the worst-hit areas - generally places from which rocket fire had originated - was that Israeli troops entered Gaza expecting a horrific battle with Hamas.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

•An Israeli foreign office official said President Barack Obama's newly-appointed special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is expected in Israel on Wednesday for talks on reviving Mideast peace negotiations.

•International aid organizations called for the unfettered entry of humanitarian and building supplies into Gaza. The territory's borders with Israel and Egypt have remained largely closed since a cease-fire took hold earlier this week.

•In Israel, the defense minister was to propose to the Cabinet today that the government provide "moral and legal support" for officers in potential court cases related to the war's conduct.

A wire report

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