Gaza, Sep 30 (IANS): The health and living conditions in the Gaza Strip are "inhumane," the UN agency for Palestine refugees said.

"Sanitary and living conditions across Gaza are inhumane," The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on social media platform X on Sunday.

"Mountains of garbage are piling up in Gaza's middle areas as sewage leaks onto the streets," it said.

"Families have no choice but to live beside the accumulated waste, exposed to the reek and the threat of a looming health disaster," it said, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others taken hostage, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 41,595, with 96,251 others injured, local health authorities said Sunday in a statement.