Gaza City/Tel Aviv - What was once Gaza City's modern centre surrounding Omer al-Mukhtar street has changed beyond recognition.

The Palestinian parliament building, near the monument of the unknown soldier, has been reduced to a pile of rubble, as has the Saraya security headquarters.

But not only they were destroyed, also the Bank of Palestine, pharmacies and many fancy clothing and shoe stores were badly damaged on the main city Gaza City road, blocked off by large chunks of concrete and electricity wires. Debris, stones and dust are everywhere.

Similar scenes of destruction and worse can be seen in the city's southern, eastern and northern neighbourhoods of Tal el-Hawa, Zaytoun, Sheja'eya and Tufah, and in the nearby towns of Jabalia and Beit Lahia to the north.

While Israel's air raids destroyed the buildings in the city centre which it associated with the Hamas movement ruling Gaza, ground troops backed by tank shelling and airstrikes sought out local militants deep in those Gaza City outskirts and in Jabalia and Beit Lahia.

Many more piles of rubble can be seen in those areas, while other houses and apartment buildings still standing have large holes in their outer walls, exposing blackened interiors and burnt furniture.

Thousands of people who had been locked inside their homes for 22 days now fill the streets, inspecting the damage, their faces dark and grim, with many of the men carrying three weeks' growth of beard. Bulldozers work to clean up the roads and allow the traffic to drive through.

More than 4,000 buildings have been completely destroyed and another 17,000 damaged in the Israeli offensive, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
(PCBS).

Large amounts of farm land have been destroyed as well, with the imprints of Israeli tanks and bulldozers still visible.

The PCBS put the total damage to Gaza's infrastructure and economy at more than 1.9 billion US dollars.

The general mood in Gaza is one of grief, anger, despair and loss.

"I really don't know what to say," sighs Raed Arafat, a resident of Zaytoun, left virtually speechless at the extent of the devastation. He feels relief to have found his own house spared, but also shocked at the sights greeting him.

"Thank God nothing happened to my house, but I feel so sad for what happened to our people, and the poor children who were killed for nothing," he says.

"I really don't know who to blame, Hamas or Israel, but in the end all I can say is that both had the chance to renew the truce on December 19 instead of going through this painful and destructive war," he adds. He refers to a six-month, Egyptian-mediate ceasefire which expired on that date.

"The only thing we gained out of this war was just thousands of people killed and thousands of houses destroyed," says Hassan el-Rafati, another resident of the neighbourhood, in bleak contrast to the victory statements made by Hamas.

Whether it results in the opening of the border crossings or Gazans will continue to live under a tight blockade, the war was "unfair," and both Hamas and Israel made "mistakes," he says.

"The poor civilians paid the price, and will gain nothing," opines the 46-year-old.

Saed Dahab, 32, a resident of Tufah, says his house was hit as many as five times by Israeli F16 fighter jets in three days. He received an pre-recorded message in Arabic on the telephone from the Israeli military, warning him to evacuate the house because it would be targeted. At first, he did not understand why, but he later found out that Hamas militants had dug a tunnel underneath it, linking the house of an activist next door to a nearby mosque.

"Israel destroyed our house and Hamas didn't warn us that it dug a tunnel under our house. That is really so nasty," he says angrily.

He believes Hamas did win the battle, but adds:

"If Hamas won, I believe that the rest of the people lost and were so badly beaten, both physically and psychologically." (dpa)