Jan 21 (Reuters) - Israel said it completed a troop pullout from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Israel's attacks in an offensive it launched on Dec. 27 to counter rocket attacks from the territory killed some 1,300 Palestinians and made thousands homeless. Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on Jan. 17 with Hamas announcing its ceasefire the next day. * TOLLS: PALESTINIANS IN GAZA: -- The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 1,300 Palestinians, among them at least 410 children, have been killed in the Gaza offensive. A Palestinian human rights group said the civilian death toll was at least 700. Hamas and other factions said at least 225 fighters and 230 policemen had been killed. The Health Ministry said 5,300 people have been wounded, including about 1,630 children. ISRAEL: -- Thirteen Israelis were killed: 10 soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire. Some 700,000 Israelis live in areas struck by Hamas rockets. * LIVING IN GAZA: -- 1.5 million Palestinians live in the 360-sq-km (139-sq-mile) Gaza Strip. More than three quarters of them are refugees whose families fled or were driven from their land in what is now Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. -- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has provided food and other assistance to 750,000 Gazans, 200,000 children attend 221 UNRWA schools throughout Gaza. On Monday UNRWA said that 17 out of 18 health centres were open in Gaza. -- UNRWA said that 53 of its installations were damaged or destroyed including 37 schools (six of which were being used as emergency shelters), six health centres, and two warehouses. -- According to UNICEF, the population of Gaza has become totally dependent on humanitarian aid for its survival. -- Hamas has said that 5,000 homes, 16 government buildings and 20 mosques were destroyed and 20,000 houses damaged in the three-week war. Sources: Reuters/UNICEF/UNRWA/Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics
Israeli soldiers sit together at a military staging area in Kibbutz Alumim, outside the Gaza Strip January 20, 2009. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing shock and anger at the "heartbreaking" devastation, ...
Egypt
