Geneva, April 9 (RHC)-- Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini says the Israeli war on Gaza has set a new record in terms of killing minors, paramedics and journalists.

“This war broke all the superlatives with the highest number of children killed, aid workers, journalists and medical teams + unprecedented attacks & destruction of hospitals & @UN buildings in blatant disregard of International Humanitarian Law,” he wrote in a post on his X account on Sunday.

“All lines - including the red lines - were crossed. This war is made far worse through technologies misused by humans to harm other humans; en-mass.”  He noted that no word can do justice to the horrors that the Palestinian population in Gaza is living in since the Tel Aviv regime began its unrelenting ground and aerial offensives more than six months ago.

The senior UN official noted that the lives of over 2 million residents of the besieged coastal territory have been turned upside down, and many people have lost their loved ones.  “It is made worse by the famine born from an Israeli-imposed siege, one would think it’s from a different era.  As a result, a man-made famine is eating up bodies of babies and young children,” Lazzarini lamented.

He went on to say that Israel continues to attack UNRWA, and is seeking to dismantle the UN relief agency and deny the refugee status to millions of Palestinians.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) says children are starving to death in Gaza amid the Israeli regime’s devastating war on the besieged territory.  Lazzarini finally demanded that all civilians in Gaza must be protected against Israeli strikes, a ceasefire must be implemented in the area as of now, and that Israel must open more land crossings and lift all restrictions on the work of UNRWA without further delay.

Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with members of the Palestinian Hamas resistance group in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. 

The Tel Aviv regime authorities argue that if the agency no longer exists, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. 

Israel launched its atrocious onslaught against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, residences, and houses of worship, since Palestinian resistance movements launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, against the usurping regime on October 7.

At least 33,175 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children. Another 75,886 individuals have sustained injuries as well.