Nearly 200 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the head of the UN agency said.

“This is by far the largest loss of personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations — a reality the world must never accept,” the Commissioner-General of the UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said on social media platform X on Saturday.

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Lazzarini said that when the conflict started nearly ten months ago, “no one thought we would reach this grim milestone,” Xinhua news agency reported.

“These are not numbers. These are our colleagues and our friends. They are teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, support staff, technicians who spent their life supporting the community.”

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 39,258, Gaza-based health authorities said on Saturday.