THE United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, which has the largest UN footprint in the Gaza Strip, has warned that it is on the “verge of collapse” and was even running out of body bags amidst the raging conflict between Israel and the Hamas militants. “As I speak with you, Gaza is running out of water and electricity. In fact, Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity,” United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on the situation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. “Gaza is now even running out of body bags. Entire families are being ripped apart,” he said. Addressing a press conference at UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem, Lazzarini said his colleagues in Gaza are no longer able to provide humanitarian assistance.

 

“The number of people seeking shelter in our schools and other UNRWA facilities in the South is absolutely overwhelming, and we do not have any more the capacity to deal with them,” he said. “In fact, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding under our eyes.” “The UNRWA operations is the largest United Nations footprint in the Gaza Strip, and we are on the verge of collapse. This is absolutely unprecedented,” Lazzarini said.