Smoke billows out of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of bombardment by the Israeli regime on November 3, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

Gaza City, November 9 (RHC)-- Officials in the Gaza Strip, which has come under a hugely deadly and devastating Israeli war, have reportedly said that the occupying regime's aggression has so far destroyed 70 percent of the coastal sliver's electricity grid.

The Palestinian Information Center news agency carried the report on Wednesday, citing a statement by the head of the Palestinian Energy Authority, Jalal Ismail.  He said the damage afflicted to the territory's electricity transmission and distribution network had so far amounted to over $80 million.

"Ismail highlighted in previous remarks published in the wake of the aggression that the Israeli goal is cutting off all sources of power in Gaza to make it an uninhabitable place," the report stated.

Even before the war, the electricity grid would provide less than half of Gaza's average electricity needs, which under normal circumstances stands at 550 megawatts.

The report came on the 34th day of a genocidal war by the Israeli regime on besieged Gaza.  The aggression started after the territory's resistance movements waged a surprise attack against the occupying entity, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, in response to its decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

At least 10,569 Palestinians, including 4,324 children and 2,823 women, have been killed in Israeli aerial and ground attacks so far.

On Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war was turning the coastal sliver into "a graveyard for children."  The UN chief said clear violations of international humanitarian law were being committed during the war, adding that the Israeli regime was simultaneously targeting "civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches, and UN facilities – including shelters.  No one is safe."