A senior Palestinian National Authority (PNA) official said on Wednesday that the estimation of losses in the Gaza Strip due to the current Israeli offensive on the enclave have reached 2 billion U.S. dollars.
Rafiq al-Husseini, chief of President Mahmoud Abbas' bureau revealed the loss figure at a news conference in Ramallah, adding humanitarian organizations "are exerting their utmost effort to allow more aids into the Gaza Strip."
Israel has been carrying out intensive and unprecedented military ground and air offensive into the Gaza Strip for 12 consecutive days on Wednesday, leaving around 700 people killed and more than 3000 wounded.
The Israeli army on Wednesday said that it would hold fire in the Gaza Strip for three hours every day to allow local residents to receive basic supplies.
Starting from Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is expected to cease its operation across the Hamas-ruled enclave from 1 p.m.(1100 GMT) to 4 p.m.(1400 GMT), an IDF spokesman told Xinhua, adding that the plan was part of the "humanitarian corridor" efforts.
However, al-Husseini held that "ceasing fire for 3 hours only wasn't enough at all to let more humanitarian aids allowed into the Gaza Strip."
"The aggression still goes on, where 50 percent of those killed are women and children," he denounced, adding 80 percent of those were either killed or injured by the Israeli warplanes missiles and tanks shells are civilians, "a fact that is totally horrible and unaccepted."
Al-Husseini also said that the Israeli army has targeted 12 mosques, schools run by the United Nations (UNRWA) as well as clinics, hospitals and dozens of civilians' homes.
"The world must say its word of truth in relation to the severe and serious Israeli violations and to the ongoing aggression on the Palestinian people," al-Husseini said, rejecting Israel's claims that hospitals host Hamas militants.
President Mahmoud Abbas is exerting every possible effort to convince countries to offer more aid to the Palestinian people, he said.
Source:Xinhua
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