GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — As he was trying to calm his terrified grandchildren during Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip on May 15, Mahmoud Khudair received a phone call telling him that the storehouses of his family's business, the Khudair Pharmaceuticals and Agricultural Tools Company, had been bombed.

He hurriedly called the fire department to put out the huge fire that spread over company's six acres in the Beit Lahia neighborhood of al-Atatra in the northern Gaza Strip. Hundreds of tons of pesticides, fertilizers and agricultural materials such as plastic, nylon and water pipes stored by the four companies that make up the Khudair group went up in flames.

The 11-day Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip that began on May 10 killed 256 Palestinians. More than 300 industrial and commercial facilities were damaged and seven factories were completely destroyed, according to the Gaza government. UNRWA estimated the damages to industrial facilities at about $40 million.

With the burning of the Khudair storehouse, one of the largest in Gaza, the besieged enclave has lost more than 50% of its agricultural production materials, most of it imported from Israel.