UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler said on Monday that the level of destruction caused by the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip is very large, and it will take more than 20 years to erase it and rebuild.

The UN spokesman added that reconstruction will be a very huge task, especially when rebuilding the education system, receiving children and ensuring their return to schools, and rebuilding damaged clinics.

He attributed the difficulty of the reconstruction process in Gaza to the very large level of destruction. Hills and piles of rubble and debris, as well as people living among the rubble, and places filled with bombs and unexploded ordnance.

Fowler explained in an interview with "Anatolia" that UNRWA has paid an extraordinary price as a result of the war, and has lost 192 of its employees since October 7, 2023, a number not witnessed since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945.

He pointed out that about 170 UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip were bombed and sustained damage to varying degrees.

He pointed out that the most damaged facilities were schools due to the cessation of education since the beginning of the aggression, and their transformation into emergency shelters for citizens, who were displaced there in search of a safe place under the protection of the United Nations flag.

He stated that about 450 citizens were killed and more than 1,400 others were injured in Israeli raids on UNRWA facilities or near them since the beginning of the aggression.

Fowler said that there is a pattern of Israeli disregard for the UN flag and its sites. There is no ambiguity about the location of our sites, yet we witnessed direct strikes on our buildings.

He stressed that UNRWA will continue to work in Gaza, despite Israeli calls to replace it with other UN agencies, and said: “We are mandated by the United Nations General Assembly, and we have a very specific mission.”

UNRWA was established by a decision of the United Nations General Assembly in 1949, and was mandated to provide assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees in its five areas of operations: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.