UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that 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.

‘One year has passed and not a day goes by without families in Gaza being subjected to unspeakable suffering, as forced displacement, disease, hunger, and death have become the daily norm for 2 million people trapped in a bombed-out and besieged enclave,” said Lazzarini in a post on x.

‘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.’

He stressed that children have been the first and most to suffer. ‘Beyond the killing and injury, every child in Gaza is traumatized many with life-long invisible scars. More than 650,000 children are losing another year of learning. Instead of being in classrooms, they are sifting through the rubble in despair and fear.’

The destruction of essential infrastructure has also reached catastrophic levels, he warned.

The UNRWA Commissioner-General said that more than two-thirds of UNRWA buildings in Gaza have been hit and deemed unusable, the vast majority while sheltering displaced people under the UN flag.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA