The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Wednesday that the Israeli war on Gaza caused “catastrophic” environmental damage in the Strip.

The agency explained on the “X” platform that “the war in Gaza has turned the lives of millions of Palestinians upside down.”

The UN agency’s publication coincides with World Environment Day, corresponding to June 5 of each year.

She stressed that the war "caused catastrophic damage to the natural environment on which Palestinians depend for water, clean air, food and livelihoods."

UNRWA indicated that "restoring environmental services (in Gaza) will take decades, and cannot begin before a ceasefire" in the Strip.

Earlier today, a joint statement by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Environmental Quality Authority stated that the total water available in the Gaza Strip is estimated at about 10-20 percent of the total water available before the war, and that this quantity is “not fixed and subject to the availability of fuel.”

It indicated that the war destroyed 350 km out of 700 km of water networks, or about 50 percent, and 9 water tanks out of 10.