UN Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has told Al Jazeera that he has “never seen anything like” the scale of destruction that has taken place in Gaza.

Fletcher described conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza as “pretty grim” and worse than anything he had seen in Darfur, Syria or on the front lines of the Ukraine-Russia war.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Fletcher said. “This is the toughest day of my working life. It is utterly, utterly pitiful what we’re seeing here.”

Fletcher added that the two-week ceasefire has nursed a “growing defiance” among the Palestinians he has spoken to.

“After two weeks of the ceasefire, people have managed to get a bit more sleep. They’ve managed to get a bit more food inside them, there is a sense of growing defiance, which I’m hearing everyone, everyone has come up to me and insisted on telling their story,” he said.