JERUSALEM: A top United Nations official on Thursday called for accelerating reconstruction work in Gaza, saying Palestinians there were living in “inhumane” conditions, even as a US-backed truce entered its second phase.

“I wouldn’t have imagined what I saw today, which is total destruction, not much is standing,” Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) told journalists after a visit to the Gaza Strip.

“We can’t wait, we can’t procrastinate,” he said, adding that Gazans across the territory were living in an “inhumane situation.”

The two-year war between Hamas and Israeli forces has left Gaza facing destruction on a scale unseen in previous conflicts, with vast swathes reduced to rubble.

Entire residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools and basic infrastructure have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.