The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini attends a meeting in Rafah after crossing into the Palestinian enclave through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on November 1, 2023. AFP
"I was shocked by the fact that everyone there was asking for food, was asking for water," Lazzarini told journalists in Gaza.
The most senior UN official to visit the strip since the war began said he had "never ever seen" anything like it before in Gaza.
He said everyone he met in Gaza was concerned about shortages in food, water, and fuel.
"Fuel here in Gaza is absolutely everything because without fuel we do not have generators, we do not have functioning bakeries, we do not have functioning hospitals and you cannot pump water.”
"UNRWA will stay with the Palestinian refugees in Gaza, with the Palestinians here in Gaza," Lazzarini added.
The United Nations warned Sunday that "civil order" was starting to collapse in Gaza after thousands of people ransacked its food warehouses in the war-torn Palestinian strip.
Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip for the 26th consecutive day on Wednesday, concentrating its fire on northern Gaza amid a ground incursion to divide the north from the south.
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