The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, stated that a year of intense violence against the Gaza Strip has turned, “Twelve months of brutal war have transformed the Gaza Strip into an unrecognizable sea of rubble, and a graveyard for tens of thousands of people, among them far too many children.”
In his statement, Lazzarini noted that a whole year has passed and families in Gaza are facing indescribable daily suffering, with forced displacement, disease, hunger, and death becoming a daily reality for two million people trapped in a disaster-stricken area.
He added, This bloody war has turned the Gaza Strip into a scene of unrecognizable destruction, and a mass grave for tens of thousands of civilians, including many children.
He also strongly stressed that “in Gaza, civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war. More than 220 UNRWA team members have been killed: the highest death toll in the history of the United Nations.”
Lazzarini stressed that “The destruction of essential infrastructure has reached catastrophic levels. More than two-thirds of UNRWA buildings have been hit and deemed unusable, the vast majority while sheltering displaced people under the UN flag.”
In the West Bank, civilians continued to endure destruction, fear, and anxiety amid an escalation and increase in operations by the Israeli military and clashes with Palestinian armed groups. Poverty is deepening as people lose income and as movement restrictions are reinforced.
Lazzarini touched on the suffering of the children of the Gaza Strip, saying that they “bear the brunt of the effects of this violence”. They do not only suffer from physical injuries, but every child there suffers from deep psychological trauma, as many psychological wounds have left permanent scars, and more than 650,000 children have lost an entire year of education.”
Lazzarini’s statements come a year after the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, with American support, which resulted in the martyrdom and injury of about 139 thousand Palestinians, and more than 10 thousand missing, with the failure of international institutions and international courts of justice to take measures to prevent Israeli acts of genocide against native Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
