Some 30,000 people are sheltering at the site and the death toll could be higher, said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General, who also took to the platform to lament “another horrific day in Gaza.”

“The compound is a clearly marked UN facility and its coordinates were shared with Israeli Authorities as we do for all our facilities,” he said, adding “once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war.”

Rafah normally has a population of around 280,000 which has swelled to an estimated 1.2 to 1.4 million as people fleeing fighting elsewhere pack into the city, setting up makeshift shelters and tents in the streets.

The squalid and unsanitary conditions have led to outbreaks of respiratory infections and Hepatitis A, both of which had been eradicated in Gaza. Meningitis and other illnesses are also emerging.

Humanitarian workers are being sent into very hostile areas “and they have no radios, they have no communications that work for them to be able to be seen to be safe”, he said, adding that they also do not have enough armoured vehicles.

Furthermore, many of the goods humanitarians are trying to bring into Gaza to support water and sanitation “seem to be prohibited by the Israelis,” he said.

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