Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warns that social order in the Gaza Strip is "teetering on the edge of a possible implosion" as a result of Israel's war against Hamas in the besieged Palestinian territory. "We are teetering on the edge of a possible implosion. Why? Because there is more and more a breakdown of a civil order," Lazzarini tells a press conference at a UN forum in Geneva. The war, now in its third month, began after the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an unrelenting military offensive that has left swathes of Gaza in ruins. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 18,787 people have been killed, mostly women and children. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES