HAMILTON, Canada

A senior UN Development Program (UNDP) official on Wednesday highlighted the "devastation" in Gaza, emphasizing the need for a Gaza cease-fire for complete recovery of Palestine.

UNDP Associate Administrator Xu Haoliang during a news conference shared highlights from his recent visit to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, which he described as "quite challenging."

"I've been through many conflicts and post-disaster situations or disasters themselves that I experienced. I can say that I've never seen the kind of devastation that I've seen in Gaza, in my career," he said.

He recalled the World Bank and UN's joint assessment of $18.9 billion in infrastructure damage in Gaza earlier this year, saying, "Almost one year on, you can imagine the amount of damage."

"We really needed to have cease-fire as soon as possible in order to talk about recovery. That recovery has to have an approach on the whole of Palestine," he said, adding that "Palestinian territory is affected as a whole, not only in Gaza."

Noting the dire food situation in Gaza, he said "estimates say that 1.8 million people are in phase three of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) food security rank."

"What I know is that at least for the last month, no fresh fruit and vegetables have been imported," he said.

Stressing the impact of a lack of food on children in Gaza, he warned: "The children are not getting the nutrients, protein, and vitamins that are necessary for their growth. It is generation issue, this is creating the humanitarian crisis."

He also pointed out the "extensive damages" to health care facilities and houses, saying that "extensive destruction of houses is putting 2.1 million people right on the move, multiple times and different statistics."

"Close to 2 million people are living in either makeshift tents or in partially damaged houses," he said.

Emphasizing the poor living conditions in camps due to a lack of solid waste management, he said "the smell in these dump sites is really intolerable."

"If this issue is not dealt with, it will really exacerbate the health crisis that we're already experiencing," he warned.