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Middle East conflict

UNRWA chief describes destruction of vital infrastructure in Gaza as catastrophic

It is reported that the current escalation has claimed the lives of more than 220 UNRWA employees

BEIRUT, October 7. /TASS/. Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), has described the scale of the destruction of vital infrastructure facilities in the Gaza Strip as catastrophic.

"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. <…> The destruction of essential infrastructure has reached catastrophic levels," he said in a statement posted on his X account.

"More than two thirds of UNRWA buildings [in the enclave] have been hit and deemed unusable, the vast majority while sheltering displaced people under the UN flag," he wrote, adding that the current escalation has claimed the lives of more than 220 UNRWA employees.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 250 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

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