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Latest reports on death toll after Israelâ€™s military offensive into Gaza Strip

20 January 2009 08:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementievaâ€“APA. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been left homeless and 400,000 people still have no running water, APA reports quoting UN press release.
Reports say UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is traveling to Gaza on Tuesday to inspect the damage. A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants is holding, allowing many Palestinians to return home to assess the damage. Presenting the latest casualty figures, he said that, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 1,314 people had been killed, including 416 children and 106 women; and 5,320 people had been injured, including 1,855 children and 795 women. That brought the total number of dead and injured to over 6,600. On the Israeli side, 4 civilians had been killed and 84 injured since 27 December. Also, nine soldiers had been killed. A total of 50 United Nations facilities had been damaged in the fighting, he added. On the medical side, primary health-care care was resuming, but there was still an enormous strain on hospitals and intensive care units, not least because 21 medical facilities had been damaged. The Al Quds hospital, damaged by shelling, was still closed, and other facilities were only partially opened. During the conflict, 13 health personnel had been killed and 22 injured, while on duty.