 "92% homes destroyed or damaged in Gaza, says UN")
Following the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, displaced Palestinians have started returning to their homes, but most of them are not likely to find anything intact when they would get back to their neighbourhoods — many of them left unrecognisable after more than a year of incessant bombardment.
As many as 92 per cent of houses in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged in Gaza, according to the United Nations (UN).
Out of the pre-war Gazan population of around 2.1 million, nearly 1.9 million have been displaced internally in Gaza from the war.
Most of the people have been forced to locate to southern Gaza from the north where large swathes of territories have been reduced to rubble from more than a year of bombardment and ground combat. Throughout the war, Israel has faced accusations of needless bombardment of civilian areas with little regard to civilians’ lives. On its part, Israel has flagged the usage of civilian neighbourhoods and facilities, such as hospitals by Hamas and other terrorist groups, to justify its aerial and ground operations in these areas.
Out of total 436,000 housing units affected by the war, the UN has said that 160,000 have been completely destroyed and 276,000 have been damaged partially.
On the website of its humanitarian agency, the UN has flagged shortages facing displaced Palestinians. It said that instead of minimum mandated area of 3.5 square metres, people are only getting 1.5 square metres of space per persons in UN shelters. It further said that as many as 450,000 people are forced to live in flood-prone areas and 945,000 people in need of support to survive winters.
In more than a year of war, nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Hamas-run Gazan authorities, which do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in their tally. Earlier in the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said that nearly half of all deaths were those of civilians because terrorists had used them as human shields.
For long before the war, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), had used residential areas, schools, and hospitals to hide, store weapons, and as a launchpad for attacks on Israel. Hamas has also long been known to have infiltrated the UN agencies functioning in Gaza. Over the years, several UN staffers have been found to be members of Hamas — not just rank and file members but commanders.
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