Marking 100 days of death and destruction, UN says Israel war on Gaza staining humanity

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), made the remarks on Saturday.

“The massive death, destruction, displacement, hunger, loss, and grief of the last 100 days are staining our shared humanity,” he said.

The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza began on October 7 following an operation by the territory’s resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. The regime’s genocidal war has so far killed at least 23,843 people, most of them women and children, while 60,317 others have been wounded.

Israel has also cut off the flow of basic supplies, such as water, electricity, medicine, and fuel, to one of the world’s most densely-populated territories that houses over two million Palestinians.

“The crisis in Gaza is a man-made disaster compounded by dehumanizing language and the use of food, water and fuel as instruments of war,” Lazzarini said.

“In the past 100 days, sustained bombardment across the Gaza Strip caused the mass displacement of a population that is in a state of flux – constantly uprooted and forced to leave overnight only to move to places, which are just as unsafe,” the UN official said.

The Israeli onslaught has brought about “the largest displacement of the Palestinian people since 1948,” Lazzarini added in reference to the year when the Israeli regime rendered some 700,000 Palestinians homeless in a hugely-Western-backed war.

The war has left a vast majority of Gaza’s population, including children, “deeply traumatized,” lamented the UN official.

“The plight of children in Gaza is especially heartbreaking. An entire generation of children is traumatized and will take years to heal,” he said.

“Thousands have been killed, maimed, and orphaned. Hundreds of thousands are deprived of education. Their future is in jeopardy, with far-reaching and long-lasting consequences,” Lazzarini added.

Elsewhere in his statement, Lazzarini said implementation of humanitarian operations across the coastal territory has “fast become one of the most complex and challenging in the world.”

Citing the main impediments that complicate the conduct of relief operations, he referred to the “cumbersome procedures” that the Israeli regime has imposed on the entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, and “a myriad of obstacles [that face] safe and orderly distribution of aid.”

“Despite repeated calls, a humanitarian ceasefire is still not in place to stop the killing of people in Gaza and enable the safe delivery of food, medicine, water, and shelter,” Lazzarini noted, warning, “The onset of winter makes life even more unbearable, especially for those living out in the open.”

His statement came after earlier on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the regime would push ahead with its military aggression, pledging, “No one will stop us.”