The scale of tragedy in Gaza is “unprecedented”, the commissioner general for the main UN agency in Palestine has said after visiting the besieged territory for the first time since 7 October, writes The Guardian.

“Philippe Lazzarini of the UNRWA described his visit to the Gaza Strip as “one of the saddest days in my humanitarian work” and urged a “meaningful” humanitarian response to prevent people in Gaza from dying.

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the first time on Wednesday, after more than 3 weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow.

Israeli forces continued to bomb the Palestinian territory from land, sea and air as they pressed their offensive. Another blast shook Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed about 50 people and wounded 150 there. Israel claims it killed a Hamas commander in the attack. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it has killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in the airstrike on Wednesday.

15 Israeli soldiers have been killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza, in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the IDF in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza. The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.

The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp could amount to war crimes. The agency said it had “serious concerns” given the “high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction” after the strikes. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the airstrikes were “just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza” and said the world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act”.

The only cancer treatment hospital in Gaza has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference: “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”

A senior Hamas official said that several hundred Israeli and other hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were subject to the same risk of “death and destruction” that Palestinians have faced. The warning was made after Hamas said that seven hostages – including three foreign passport holders – were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that caused dozens of fatalities.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its campaign of airstrikes and incursions. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities. The UN’s humanitarian office has reported that at least 123 Palestinians, including 34 children, have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.

The UN child rights committee has warned that “grave” human rights violations against children are “mounting by the minute” in Gaza, and called for an immediate ceasefire. “There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” the UN committee on the rights of the child said in a statement on Wednesday.

Pope Francis said on Wednesday that a two-state solution was needed for Israel and Palestine. The head of the Catholic church noted that Jerusalem should be given special status”.