Palestinians estimate Gaza damage at $1.4 billion

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Destruction from Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has cost the Palestinian economy at least $1.4 billion (953 million pounds), Palestinian officials said.

The Palestinian Statistics Bureau said some 26,000 Gazans unable to live in their homes were being housed in emergency temporary shelters.

The bureau estimated that some 20,000 residential buildings had been damaged in Israeli air, sea and ground attacks that began on December 27, and that some 4,000 were totally destroyed.

Surveyors reporting to the bureau said public buildings were also destroyed including 18 schools and university buildings, roads, bridges, power lines and water and sewage pipes.

The bureau put the cost of reconstruction at close to $1 billion, with daily losses of revenues amounting to an additional $420,000. With fighting continuing, it said the final cost could be much higher.

"The Gaza Strip has become a humanitarian, social and economic disaster area because of Israeli aggression," bureau director Loay Shabane said in a statement.

The Palestinian death toll from the almost three-week-old offensive was at least 1,105, with some 5,100 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. A Palestinian rights group said about 700 of the dead were civilians.

Thirteen Israelis have been killed, including 10 soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire.

(Reporting by Haitham Tamimi, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Angus MacSwan)