UNRWA chief says suffering in Gaza 'absolutely unbearable'

HAMILTON, Canada

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, described the situation in the Gaza Strip as "absolutely unbearable" on Thursday, warning that international outrage has not translated into meaningful action.

"I think it's always important, day after day, to remind ourselves about the overall unfolding there, just to make sure that we do not start to feel outdated or indifferent," Lazzarini told reporters at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York.

He said conditions are so dire that "it's quite common now today to hear in Gaza that people just dream to be able to properly die, rather than to go through this suffering."

Stressing the importance of maintaining pressure, he said, "I think it's very important to keep expressing total outrage on what's going on, and of course, and part of our frustration is that this outrage has not yet been translated into meaningful action, putting an end to the atrocity that we are recording on a daily basis."

Despite severe constraints, he affirmed UNRWA's commitment to serving Palestinians.

"We are still operational in Gaza. We still have 12,000 staff," he said. "We needed yesterday a ceasefire. We need yesterday the release of the hostages. We needed yesterday a scaling up of the imminent assistance to reverse what's unfolding onwards. We also need now is that we restore the humanitarian response," he said.