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Israel's war on Gaza has cost the transport sector more than $3 billion, the Palestinian transport minister revealed on Sunday.

Waves of Israeli airstrikes and shelling have destroyed thousands of vehicles in Gaza and caused huge damage to the enclave's network of roads.

"The Ministry of Transportation committees estimate that the [Israeli] occupation forces destroyed about 55,000 vehicles in the Gaza Strip, which is equivalent to 60 percent of licensed vehicles", said Tariq Zourob, as quoted by Anadolu Agency.

Zourob is a minister in the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and not Gaza’s Hamas-run government.

"The occupation destroyed about 945 km of roads in Gaza, which is equivalent to 65 percent of the road network, at a cost exceeding 2 billion dollars."

Israel’s unprecedented bombardment of Gaza has devastated the territory's infrastructure, reducing entire districts to rubble.

The damage to Gaza's cars and roads, as well as fuel shortages due to the Israeli siege, mean it is now common to see donkey carts as the main form of transport in the enclave.

The cost of reconstruction in Gaza is likely to be at least in the .

Israel claims it wants to dismantle Hamas after the group led a surprise 7 October attack in southern Israel, but it has been widely accused of conducting a war of revenge and collective punishment against the entire population of the Gaza Strip.

As the war enters its eighth month, more than 34,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Thousands more who are missing and buried beneath the rubble. They are presumed dead but not counted in the current death toll.

The offensive and siege have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine, with insufficient amounts of aid trickling in through a small number border crossings.

Mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release Israeli hostages captured on 7 October are ongoing.