UN paints bleak post-war future for Gaza

The United Nations has warned about a bleak post-war future for the Gaza Strip, which has endured more than three months of a ferocious and genocidal Israeli military onslaught.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the world body's agency for Palestinian refugees, sounded the warning on Wednesday, the 103rd day of the military campaign.

Referring to the fatalities of the war, the chief of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said many residents were no longer able to see "the future in the Gaza Strip."

Nearly 24,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have died in the brutal military campaign so far.

"You have hundreds of thousands of people living now in the street, living in these plastic makeshift [tents], sleeping on the concrete," Lazzarini said.

The UN official said more than 60 percent of buildings are estimated to have been damaged throughout the coastal sliver -- the majority of whose 2.4-million-strong population has been rendered homeless.

The UNRWA chief described the situation in northern Gaza as "a pocket of humanitarian catastrophe."

"Would you even encourage anyone to go to the north when we know the north is infested by UXOs (unexploded ordnance) and rubble, and non-functioning services?" he asked.

Plight of children

"My fear is that we have now a generation of lost kids," said Lazzarini, referring to the children, who were living in "brutal" conditions and were deeply traumatized.

Children and women comprise more than 70 percent of the fatalities of the war.

The onslaught has also deprived half a million of the youngsters, aged six to 14, of education.

"The more we wait... the more we take risks for the future," the UN official said.

"When we talk about rebuilding Gaza, it's not anymore like before, where we had to rehabilitate some shelter and that was still doable," the UNRWA chief said, referring to previous Israeli wars on the Palestinian territory, which would last for days or weeks.

The Israeli regime has claimed that it was ready to prolong the military campaign for "months," pledging that it would not cease fire until defeating the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas, which has been defending the territory against Israeli aggression.

SS