ANKARA

Over 100,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured or went missing in the past four months during the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, said the head of a UN agency on Monday.

The figure "represents nearly 5% of the population," said Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees or UNRWA.

"More than 80% of the population has been displaced, most several times," he said on X.

Around 17,000 children in Gaza became "unaccompanied or separated from their families," he added.

"A ceasefire is overdue, a different trajectory is needed for the sake of people in Gaza, in Israel, elsewhere in the region and beyond," Lazzarini concluded.

Since Jan. 26, numerous countries have suspended funding to the UNRWA after Israel alleged that some of its employees were involved in the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.

The agency said it terminated contracts with several employees following the Israeli allegations.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, to date killing at least 27,478 Palestinians and injuring 66,835 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar