By Servet Gunerigok
WASHINGTON (AA) - The Gaza Strip has been "unrecognizable" and there is no end in sight to the violence engulfing the Middle East, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Wednesday.
"One year after the abhorrent attacks against Israel, and the catastrophic war on Gaza, no end is in sight to the brutal violence engulfing the region," Philippe Lazzarini said at a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Palestinian enclave.
"It has been a year of profound loss and suffering," he said.
Gaza has become a sea of rubble and a graveyard for tens of thousands of people including far too many children, he said, noting that almost the entire population is displaced.
Turning to the situation in the occupied West Bank, he warned of escalating violence where nearly 700 people have been killed in the past year, more than 160 of them being children.
"Civilian life is increasingly militarized, and settlement activity is expanding aggressively," he said.
He said Lebanon is the latest casualty of the widening conflict.
"Civilians are paying a heavy price. Airstrikes by Israeli forces are killing and enduring thousands and displeasing hundreds of thousands," said Lazzarini.
He highlighted the importance of the UNRWA in Gaza, cautioning that the agency's operational space is shrinking amid Israeli attacks.
The commissioner said senior Israeli officials are describing destroying UNRWA as their "war goal" and Israel wants to ban the agency's presence and operation.
"Failing to push back against attempts to intimidate and undermine the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territory will eventually compromise humanitarian and human rights war worldwide," he said, as he urged the Security Council to decide to which extent it will tolerate acts that compromise international peace and security.
"The climate of impunity that prevails will not dissipate without decisive action," he added.
Lisa Doughten, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)'s director of the financing and partnerships division, began by slamming Israeli evacuation orders for civilians in northern Gaza.
"Once again, utter chaos ensues as the world watches on," said Doughten.
She denounced Israeli legislation seeking to ban UNWRA's activities. "This would be disastrous for the provision of aid and essential services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank," she said.
Doughten said women and children are hard-hit by the trauma of the war and each day, according to UNRWA,10 children are losing one or both of their legs.
"Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history. Women are three times more likely to miscarry, and three times more likely to die from childbirth," she said. "We cannot claim ignorance to what is happening -- nor can we afford to look away. That is why we repeat our calls for the Security Council, and member states, to take action.”
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following an attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, a little more than a year ago, which killed nearly 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, more than 42,000 people have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 97,700 injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
*Serife Cetin contributed to the story in New York