Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency

Geneva, June 2 (RHC)-- The head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency recounts the sheer extent of destruction that has been caused by the Israeli regime in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which is suffering the brunt of a genocidal Israeli war against the coastal sliver.

Philippe Lazzarini made the comments in a post on X, former Twitter, on Saturday, nearly a month after the regime launched a ground assault against the city amid international outcry.  The city was hosting around 1.5 million displaced Gazans prior to the operation.

Lazzarini, however, noted how the assault had forced “more than one million people - most displaced several times - to flee once again, in search of safety that they never find.”  He also regretted that “all of our 36 UNRWA shelters in Rafah are empty now,” adding: “This is where people seek shelter & should be protected at all times under the UN flag.”

The UN body, Lazzarini added, “had to stop health and other critical services in Rafah” amid the incessant Israeli aggression.

At least 36,379 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the war that the regime launched in early October last year in response to a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups.

The UN official went on to warn that “the humanitarian space” continued to further shrink throughout the coastal sliver in the face of the Israeli brutality.

“UNRWA was allowed to pick up just under 450 [aid] trucks in the past 3 weeks in support of the humanitarian operation,” he said, adding, however, “This is nothing in the face of the needs: At least 600 trucks/day of commercial, fuel & humanitarian supplies.”

Lazzarini, meanwhile, posted “most horrific” pictures of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, which has endured a 20-day-long extensive Israeli operation.  He likewise bemoaned the level of destruction that had been caused by the Israeli operation to the camp.

“Thousands of displaced people have no choice but to live amid the rubble & in destroyed UNRWA facilities,” he said, warning: “Destruction will bring more destruction, more grief, more anger & more loss...”