UNRWA spokesperson Louise Wateridge said on Monday that the Israeli forces were massacring more Palestinian civilians in the besieged region and using repeated evacuation orders as cover to commit atrocities.

“Strikes are now relentless: the day starts with people checking if family and friends are still alive, and ends hoping they make it through the night,” she added.

UNRWA has reported that 80 percent of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure has been destroyed since Israel launched its savage military campaign across the besieged Palestinian territory in early October last year.

The United Nations recently reported that 10 months of Israeli war in Gaza have generated approximately 42 million tons of debris. Clearing the rubble is expected to cost up to $700 million and could take several years to complete.

According to the UN, the scale of destruction in Gaza is unprecedented, with entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble.

The sheer volume of debris poses a significant challenge for recovery efforts, both logistically and financially.

UN estimates suggest that the cleanup operation could extend over several years, some say 15 years given the complexity and scope of the work involved.

The most recent report by the world body has also identified approximately 73 percent of industrial and business facilities as damaged across Gaza.

UN also says most of Gaza’s population has been displaced, including many who have been forced to evacuate multiple times.

New reports of death and destruction emerged on Monday as Israeli forces launched more deadly strikes on the central and southern parts of the besieged strip.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the total number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli regime’s genocide since early October has topped 40,100, mostly women and children. More than 92,000 people have also been injured.

The Palestinian Civil Defense recently said the catastrophic death toll of more than 40,000 given by health officials fails to capture the full extent of Palestinian losses during Israel’s 10-month-old genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

This comes as tens of thousands are missing or buried under mountains of rubble, many with “disintegrated bodies”.

The Lancet, a leading general medical journal, earlier estimated that the death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip could be 186,000 or even more.

The rise in deaths, mainly due to Israeli air attacks in Gaza between October and December last year, represents a 137 percent increase compared with 2022, when 118 aid workers were killed.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday that aid workers were killed in 33 countries in 2023, the “deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community”.

But this year “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome”, OCHA warned, with 172 aid workers killed so far this year as of August 7.

Marking World Humanitarian Day, leaders of humanitarian organisations are sending a joint letter to UN General Assembly member states, calling for an end to attacks on civilians, enhanced protection for aid workers, and accountability for those responsible.

Violence in Sudan and South Sudan has contributed to the death toll, both in 2023 and in 2024, said the UN. Meanwhile, several humanitarian workers continue to be detained in Yemen.

The UN’s acting emergency relief coordinator, Joyce Msuya, said in a statement that “the normalisation of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere”.

She demanded in a statement that “people in power act to end violations against civilians and the impunity with which these heinous attacks are committed”.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has noted 207 of its staff members have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war in October last year.

“We demand an end to impunity so that perpetrators face justice,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, wrote on X: “In Gaza, there have been way too many of them since the war started 10 months ago. At least 289 aid workers including 207 UNRWA team members and 885 health workers lost.”