Decimated Gaza ‘living hell’ for more than 2 mln people: UNRWA chief

Gaza has been decimated and become a “living hell” for more than 2 million people, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Monday.

Philippe Lazzarini’s remarks came in his opening address to the meeting of the agency’s Advisory Commission in Geneva.

“In the last nine months, we have witnessed unprecedented failures of humanity in a territory marked by decades of violence,” Lazzarini said.

Describing the situation as “a nightmare” that Gazans cannot wake, he lamented that “catastrophic levels” of hunger across the Gaza Strip are the result of human action.

“Children are dying of malnutrition and dehydration, while food and clean water wait in trucks,” he said.

The breakdown of civil order has resulted in rampant looting and smuggling that impede the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid.

He also mentioned the situation in the West Bank by warning that “another tragedy is unfolding” under the shadow of Gaza as more than 500 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7.

Regarding millions of Palestine refugees in the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, Lazzarini said that most have been living in camps for generations, “often with limited rights and in grinding poverty, waiting for a political solution that will bring an end to their plight.”

“Today, they are witnessing the greatest Palestinian tragedy since the Nakba,” he added.