Despite a cease-fire providing a "much-needed respite," a humanitarian catastrophe persists in the Gaza Strip, the head of the U.N.'s infrastructure agency warned Thursday.
"In addition to immense human suffering, I also witnessed an unimaginable degree of the destruction of infrastructure and houses, and an overwhelming volume of rubble," Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) said following a visit to Gaza where a truce between Israel and Hamas has been in effect since Jan. 19.
The cease-fire suspended Israel's genocidal war that has killed more than 48,200 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.
Israel has turned Gaza into the world's largest open-air prison, maintaining an 18-year blockade and forcing nearly 2 million of its 2.3 million residents into displacement amid dire shortages of food, water, and medicine due to deliberate restrictions.
