The Deputy Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, has said there is an urgent need to reach a negotiated settlement in Gaza after the recent ceasefire breakdown.
Irish aid worker John Whyte said conditions in the enclave have continued to detoriate with "very little hope" on the ground.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said: "I think it would be normal under such circumstances to question whether any good can come of any of this.
"At the same time, we as UNRWA, have to give hope to these people where there is very little hope on the ground and we are committed to doing what we can.
"We're not naive, we understand the reality of this situation, it's almost overwhelming and entirely unprecedented.
"But at the same time, there's 2.1 million people relying on us and the international humanitarian system to help them at what is their darkest hour.
"They feel alone in the world, they feel no one is paying attention in spite of this almost being livestreamed on a daily basis, nothing has changed.
"So any sort of political dialogue, any sort of discussion that helps to move towards some sort of negotiated settlement is what we all need and urgently."
Last January, Israeli legislation banning UNRWA operations on Israeli soil, creating deep uncertainty over the organisation's future ability to carry on.
However, Mr Whyte said UNRWA will continue to deliver its services as long as its able to do so.
He said: "UNRWA still remains the agency that people look to on the ground to provide relief, food, education, health, all of the services and supports that people need.
"We are being increasingly prevented from doing so, but we still enjoy a huge mandate from the international community.
"The UN Secretary General has repeatedly reenforced and restated the importance of UNRWA, that it cannot be replaced.
"We will continue to deliver our services for as long as we're able to.
"People still depend on us, when they see UNRWA, they feel safer and we have a duty to continue to turn up and support them as long as we can."
"We saw during the ceasefire what could be achieved - literally thousands of trucks brought in, more than 4,000 on a weekly basis.
He added: "For UNRWA, our job is just to provide operational support on the ground. Anything that helps move the process forward towards dialogue, peace and agreement, the release of hostages, prisoners, the handover of dead bodies, the resumption of supplies at scale, to all parts of Gaza where it is needed.
"We saw during the ceasefire what could be achieved - literally thousands of trucks brought in, more than 4,000 on a weekly basis.
"That can be easily done once there is dialogue, a commitment to trying to have a stable peace, and everyone wants this to happen except some of the key actors who are trying to pursue a different path."
Six weeks ago, Israeli completely cut off all supplies to Gaza residents, with food stockpiled during the ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Still, thousands of aid trucks outside Gaza stand ready to deliver much-needed food and supplies.
Mr Whyte said: "This war has been ongoing for the last 18 months, and you would think as humanitarian workers you would have seen everything, but since the breakdown of the ceasefire recently, we have seen levels of destruction, aggression, of loss of life, targeting of almost every conceivable aspect of life in Gaza.
"And in spite of our best efforts to try and represent this to the wider world, we see that things are getting worse.
"The blockade has been going on for more than a month, no aid is getting into Gaza in spite of thousands of trucks lined up outside to bring lifesaving food, medicine, everything that's needed but not being allowed to come in."
Additional reporting: Reuters
