Gaza turned into graveyard after ´brutal´ year: UN agency

The year-long "brutal" war has turned the Gaza Strip into a graveyard for tens of thousands and a sea of rubble, the UN agency for Palestine refugees said Monday, reported Xinhua.

"Twelve months of brutal war have transformed the Gaza Strip into an unrecognizable sea of rubble and a graveyard for tens of thousands of people, among them far too many children," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on social media platform X on the first anniversary of the Gaza conflict.

"One year has passed, and not a day goes by without families in Gaza being subjected to unspeakable suffering, as forced displacement, disease, hunger, and death have become the daily norm for 2 million people trapped in a bombed-out and besieged enclave," Lazzarini said.

"Children have been the first and most to suffer. Beyond the killing and injury, every child in Gaza is traumatized, many with life-long invisible scars. More than 650,000 children are losing another year of learning. Instead of being in classrooms, they are sifting through the rubble in despair and fear," he said.

Lazzarini noted that the Middle East is "sinking deeper into conflict, killing, and sheer horrors."

"The expansion of the war into Lebanon is wreaking havoc on civilians, many forced to relive traumas of the past," he said.

Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 41,909, with injuries up to 97,303, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Monday.