STRASBOURG — The European Union's foreign policy chief has compared the scale of destruction across Gaza to damage to German cities in World War II.

Josep Borrell said that an assessment by the World Bank and the United Nations put the cost of rebuilding Gaza’s infrastructure at $90 billion (€84 billion).

“We can say that more than 60% of the physical infrastructure has been damaged and 35% fully destroyed,” he said.

He was speaking during a plenary session of the EU Parliament on the bloc’s response to the killing of humanitarian aid workers, journalists and civilians by the Israel Defence Forces.

He opened the session by saying more than 240 aid workers had been killed.

"We have to repeat once again that Israel must respect international law,” he said, adding that Israel must “ensure the protection of all civilians and all humanitarian workers”.

Meanwhile, the commissioner general of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said attacks on its reputation were intended to strip Palestinians of refugee status.

He made those remarks a day after former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna submitted her report from an investigation into UNRWA over allegations from Israel that some of the agency’s staff had assisted Hamas with the October 7 attacks on Israel.

Those claims prompted at least 15 countries to suspend funding.

“I hope that with this report and the measure we will be putting in place, the last group of donors will get the necessary confidence to come back as a donor and partner of the agency,” Philippe Lazzarini said.

The United Nations called on Tuesday for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves uncovered at two major hospitals in war-torn Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops.

Credible investigators must have access to the sites, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters and added that more journalists need to be able to work safely in Gaza to report on the facts.

Earlier on Tuesday, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Shifa medical center in Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis as well as the reported discovery of mass graves in and around the facilities after the Israelis left.

The Palestinian civil defense in the Gaza Strip said earlier this week that it had uncovered 283 bodies from a temporary burial ground inside the main hospital in Khan Younis that was built when Israeli forces were besieging the facility last month.

At the time, people were not able to bury the dead in a cemetery and dug graves in the hospital yard, the group said.

The civil defense said some of the bodies were of people killed during the hospital siege. Others were killed when Israeli forces raided the hospital.

Meanwhile, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s second day of a three-day visit to Turkey was marked by more pro-Palestine protests.

The Gaza Solidarity Platform marched past the German consulate in Istanbul to denounce Berlin’s support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.

“Germany provides the most weapons to Israel after the US, and we are here today to protest once again this inhumane massacre committed by Germany on Gaza,” said protester Zehra Turkmen.

The Berlin-based investigatory group Forensis says that between 2003-2023, Germany approved almost €3.3 billion in arms export licenses to Israel.

That military support has become increasingly unpopular with multiple legal cases filed against the government in a bid to get it dropped. — Euronews