GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — As residents of the Gaza Strip continued to sift through the rubble and mourn their dead, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon toured the seaside Palestinian enclave Tuesday and declared himself “deeply grieved by what I have seen today.”
Ban entered Gaza from Israel in a convoy of armored vehicles. Speaking in front of the smoldering remains of a U. N. food warehouse set ablaze last week by an Israeli tank shell, a somber Ban said he had witnessed “heartbreaking” scenes of destruction.
“I have seen only a fraction of the damage,” he said. “This is shocking and alarming.”
Ban later visited the Israeli town of Sderot, long a target for rockets fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza. Ban called the ongoing attacks against Israeli residents “appalling and unacceptable.”
Israeli tanks and soldiers continued their withdrawal from Gaza on Tuesday, signaling an end to the devastating 22-day campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Normal life continued to return in Gaza. Stores around Gaza City’s Palestine Square were bustling with customers. However, much of the northern third of the territory, which witnessed the heaviest fighting and airstrikes, was still without consistent water and electricity. More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,000 wounded during the Israeli assault, according to local medical officials. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated that 21,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed. The bureau estimated reconstruction costs, infrastructure damage and economic losses at nearly $2 billion.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which has run schools and aid programs in Gaza since 1948, said at least $330 million in emergency funding would be required simply to meet the most immediate needs on the ground.
At least 13 Israelis — 10 soldiers and three civilians — died in the conflict. Most of the Israeli military fatalities resulted from “friendly fire.”
Despite the devastation on display, Hamas declared a moral and strategic victory, with thousands of supporters parading through Gaza City on Tuesday.
“Every time the attacks increase, our support increases,” shouted one of the rally’s leaders. “We won’t surrender to destruction, and we won’t surrender to the siege. We won’t surrender to the cowardly policies of the Zionists.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday expressed confidence that the offensive will successfully deter Hamas and other militant groups from launching rockets against Israel in the future.
Meanwhile, Arab governments gathering at an economic summit in Kuwait condemned what they called excessive Israeli force and pledged support for the reconstruction of Gaza.
But the deep divisions within the Arab world were also on display.
States such as Syria and Qatar, which suspended its low-level ties with Israel over the Gaza assault, pushed for stronger language and urged countries such as Egypt and Jordan to reconsider their longtime diplomatic relationships with the Jewish state.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa acknowledged that Arab leaders were split into moderate and hard-line camps.
“Arab affairs are still tense,” he said. “Things are still not good, in my opinion.”
