ISTANBUL 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Thursday that 99 of its staff have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

This came in a speech delivered by UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini during the International Humanitarian Conference for Civilians in Gaza held in Paris, France.

"The past month was painful for UNRWA," said Lazzarini.

He said "99 of my male and female colleagues were killed in Gaza. This is by far the largest number of United Nations relief workers killed in a conflict in such a short time."

He noted that they are among 10,000 people killed since the beginning of the war, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

"The killing of thousands of children (in Gaza) cannot be collateral damage,” he said.

Lazzarini added that pushing a million people to leave their homes and concentrating them in areas that lack adequate infrastructure constitutes “forced displacement” and that severely restricting food, water and medicine is “collective punishment.”

He said "the Israeli military incursion and settler violence in the West Bank caused a record rise in the number of Palestinian deaths."

Regarding his visit to Gaza last week, he said: “For the first time since the start of the war, I visited an UNRWA school that houses thousands of people, and it was a sad and heartbreaking situation.”

"Children are used to learning and laughing in this school, but today they are begging for a piece of bread and a sip of water."

Lazzarini said "more than 700,000 displaced people live in similar humiliating conditions inside 150 UNRWA schools and buildings across the Gaza Strip...Our shelters are overcrowded, with little food, water or privacy."

“The appalling sanitary conditions represent a looming threat to public health,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the International Humanitarian Conference for Civilians in Gaza was launched in Paris with the participation of a large number of representatives of countries and organizations including Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yildiz, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel.

In his opening speech at the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would allocate an additional €80 million ($85 million) for humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, bringing its total for the current year to €100 million, the Le Parisien daily reported.