Gaza Aftermath

The Death toll

-At least 1,315 people killed, including more than 400 children and more than 100 women.

-At least 5,400 Palestinians injured, including nearly 1,900 children and 800 women.

-At least 100,000 people forced from their homes.

-At least 13 Israelis killed, including three civilians.

Outcry over weapons used in Gaza

Medics working in the Gaza Strip have condemned Israel's use of suspected "new weapons" that inflict horrific injuries they say most surgeons will not have seen before.

Dr Jan Brommundt, a German doctor working for Medecins du Monde in the south Gazan city of Khan Younis, described the injuries he had seen as "absolutely gruesome".

The Israelis were using some form of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (Dime). When detonated, a Dime device expels a blade of charged tungsten dust that burns and destroys everything within a four-metre radius. Brommundt also described widespread but previously unseen abdominal injuries that appear minor at first but degenerate within hours causing multi-organ failure.

Medics and observers have also accused the Israelis of using white phosphorus - banned from use near civilians under international law - in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

We saw streets and alleyways littered with evidence of the use of white phoshorus, including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army," Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons expert touring Gaza as part of AI's four-person delegation, said.

White phosphorus is a toxic chemical that causes severe burns and sparks fires that are difficult to extinguish.

It is dispersed in artillery shells, bombs and rockets and burns on contact with oxygen and is used to create a smokescreen to hide the movement of troops.

Statistics: Gaza economic losses estimated at 1.9 billion dollars

Dr. Loai Shabana, the head of the Palestinian central bureau of statistics, said Monday that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip caused an economic damage estimated at more than one billion and nine hundred million dollars.

In a report, Dr. Shabana underlined that the number of buildings and facilities according to the census conducted by the bureau in 2007 were 147,437 and the preliminary estimates indicated that the three-week Israeli aggression led to the complete and partial destruction of 14% of this infrastructure.

The official noted that there are about 5,400 Palestinian injuries in need of rehabilitation and general aid other than thousands of Palestinian citizens who were rendered homeless or lost their breadwinners, adding that the financial compensations needed for rehabilitating the affected Palestinians are estimated at 31.5 million dollars per year.

~Source : http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/ and http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en