Smoke rises from Israeli military operations in Gaza. Seen from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on January 11, 2009. (Sebastian Scheiner, AP)
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A Palestinian man clears the rubble out of his house in Rafah, damaged during an Israeli army operation on January 18, 2009.(Eyad Baba, AP)
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Palestinians gather next to a building used by the Islamic group Hamas after it was hit in an Israeli missile strike on the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City on January 9, 2009. (Hatem Moussa, AP)
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A Palestinian family eats breakfast next to their damaged house in the Jebaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 20, 2009. Hamas leaders vowed to restore order to the shattered territory but the task of reconstruction is complicated by the fear of renewed fighting and Israel's control over border crossings. (Patrick Baz, AP)
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Flares and smoke seen during an Israeli military operation over central Gaza City on January 13, 2009. (Khalil Hamra, AP)
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Palestinian medics wheel a wounded man who, according to Palestinian medical sources, was hurt in an Israeli strike, into Shifa hospital in Gaza City on January 5, 2009. (Khalil Hamra, AP)
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This young Palestinian mother, Tahani Hijji, 26, carries her child as she checks on her destroyed house in the southern part of Gaza City on January 20, 2009. (Anja Niedringhaus, AP)
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The arm of a member of the Palestinian Samoni family, killed on January 5, 2009 during the Israeli army operation in Gaza. The body is buried under the rubble of the family house in Gaza City. (Khalil Hamra, AP)
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Palestinian women weep during the funeral of Hamas militant Muhammed Abu Shaar on January 5, 2009. He was killed during an Israeli missile strike, at his family house in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. (Eyad Baba, AP)
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In this photo released by the Israeli army, soldiers walk towards the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza on January 12, 2009. (Neil Cohen, AP/IDF)
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An explosion during an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, the southern tip of the Gaza Strip on January 13, 2009. (Abdalrahem Khateb, AP)
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A Palestinian family rushes past a burning building after an Israeli missile struck a target in the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern tip of the Gaza Strip on December 28, 2008. (Hatem Omar, AP)
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A Palestinian woman buys food from a small supermarket in Gaza City on January 8, 2009. The Israeli military ceased hostilities for three hours a day to allow Palestinians to stock up on basic necessities. (Mohammed Saber, epa)
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A Palestinian man walks past the rubble of a building following an Israeli airstrike in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip on January 7, 2009. (Eyad Baba, AP)
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A Palestinian collapses after hearing that a relative had been killed in Israeli shelling in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip on January 10, 2009. Eight people were killed in the same explosion. (Khalil Hamra, AP)
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A Palestinian boy surveys the damage done to a Beit Lahiya cemetery apparently crossed by Israeli Army vehicles on January 20, 2009. Many of the graves have been destroyed. The area in northern Gaza was occupied by the Israeli Army during the conflict. (Ben Curtis, AP)
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People walk by the rubble of houses in Gaza City on January 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
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Palestinian siblings cry during the funeral of their brothers Qasem, 6 and Basem, 11, and their uncle Saddam Abed al Nabe, 17, at Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 14, 2009. (Mohammed Saber/epa)
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A Palestinian boy climbs over destroyed houses in Jebaliya, in the north of Gaza Strip on January 19, 2009. (Jerry Lampen, AP)
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A Palestinian man prays on January 20, 2009, next to destroyed houses during a wake for the Sammouni family in the southern part of Gaza City. A few days earlier 29 members of the family were killed in an Israeli Army bombardment. (Anja Niedringhaus, AP)
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Death and destruction hang over the Palestinian Territory.
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Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip and the Hamas movement on December 27. The cost was heavy. Israel had 13 dead but around 1,300 Palestinians were killed and 5,300 wounded before a ceasefire was accepted on January 18. Some parts of central Gaza emerged virtually unscathed. But other communities, such as Jabalya, and Beit Lahiya were totally devastated by bombing and shelling.
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