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OPT: UN chief to visit Gaza as Israeli troops quit

  • U.N.'s Ban to become top figure to see war-ravaged Gaza

* Israeli troops expected to quit Gaza before Obama sworn in

* Repair bill estimated at $1.9 billion

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Douglas Hamilton

GAZA, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon planned to visit Gaza on Tuesday, and Israeli political sources said Israel would complete its troop pullout before Barack Obama was sworn in as U.S. president later in the day.

Israel was widely seen by analysts to be anxious to avoid any tensions with the incoming leader of the United States, its closest ally.

Ban will be the highest-ranking international figure to visit the Gaza Strip since 22 days of fighting ended on Sunday with separately declared ceasefires by Israel and the Islamist Hamas group which rules the Palestinian territory.

The U.N. Secretary-General, on a Middle East peacemaking mission, would also visit southern Israel, target of Hamas rocket attacks, said Israeli officials.

World leaders were keen to cement a truce and avoid any more bloodshed in Gaza where more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel's air and ground strikes launched on Dec. 27.

Gaza's infrastructure was left in ruins and the repair bill was estimated to be about $1.9 billion.

Hamas said 5,000 homes, 16 government buildings and 20 mosques were destroyed and that 20,000 houses were damaged. Israel has said militants hid weapons inside the mosques.

Palestinian militant groups said 112 of their fighters and 180 Hamas policemen were killed. Israel put its dead at 10 soldiers and said three civilians were killed in rocket attacks.

Gaza medical officials said the Palestinian dead included at least 700 civilians. Israel, which accused Hamas of endangering non-combatants by operating in densely populated areas, said hundreds of militants were among the dead.

WHO WARNING

In Geneva, World Health Organisation head Margaret Chan warned of a looming health crisis for many among the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the sliver of territory wedged between Israel and Egypt.

Chan said she was "deeply concerned" about an interruption of immunisations and other life-saving care in the territory, and of the availability of only 2,000 hospital beds in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia pledged $1 billion for rebuilding and the European Union said the bloc's foreign ministers planned to meet in Brussels to discuss humanitarian aid and Israeli demands for the prevention of weapons smuggling to Gaza.

Israel had launched it offensive with a vow to "change the reality" for southern border towns that had been the target of rocket fire from Hamas and other militant groups since 2001.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared the mission accomplished, noting diplomatic efforts by the United States, Egypt and European nations to prevent Hamas rearming. Israel has vowed to respond to any renewed flow of arms to Gaza.

The fighting ended just weeks before a Feb. 10 Israeli election. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party is still the front-runner but Defence Minister Ehud Barak's Labour party has gained in popularity.

Hamas proclaimed victory despite the destruction in Gaza, and its armed wing vowed to replenish its arsenal of rockets.

But Hamas official Mushir al-Masri said talks had continued on Egypt's proposal for a long-term truce that would assure the reopening of crossings into Gaza, including the Rafah terminal with Egypt that was the main access to the outside world.

Ban, in comments to Arab leaders on Monday, urged rival Palestinian factions to take what many see as an unlikely step of uniting behind Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to help heal Gaza's wounds.

Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah forces in 2007 after winning an election the year before. Israel and the West boycotted governments led by Hamas because the group rejects Israel's right to exist.

(Additional reporting by Doug Hamilton in Jabalya, Adam Entous in Jerusalem, Ulf Laessing and Rania El Gamal in Kuwait, David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Ralph Gowling)