A local journalist said to me that the six days of the incursion so far could be summarized as "siege, horror, starvation and destruction." Beit Hanoun is a small town, consisting of 8 streets and is, like every other town of the Gaza Strip, very crowded. The main street in the town is now very difficult to use, because of the shells holes in the road from the frequent Israeli attacks, but the six-day offensive cut wide swathes of destruction through cultivated land, damaging the town's primary industry. Since June 26 2006, military incursions and aerial bombardments have caused damage to Gaza's agriculture estimated at US$ 23.5 million. The conflict has also caused severe damage to infrastructure. Bridges, roads, a power supply plant, and water supply networks have been wrecked in the past few months. The cost of damage to infrastructure is estimated at US$8 million.
Please click Yousef Alhelou's photo of a Palestinian family left devastated in Beit Hanoun
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