The Middle East is on the “edge of an abyss” as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas, UN agency chief Philippe Lazzarini has told the BBC.

The commissioner-general of UN relief agency UNRWA said violence could spill over across the region. And he warned about the dire situation for civilians inside Gaza, calling again for humanitarian aid corridors into the territory.

Lazzarini said he fears “the world is now losing its humanity”.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, he reiterated calls for humanitarian aid corridors, saying help “needs to be uninterrupted... predictable [and] meaningful” to help the people of Gaza. Speaking in Jerusalem, the head of UNRWA condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel, calling it a “horrific and barbaric massacre” that had created a “national trauma, a collective trauma in Israel”: “But this event still does not justify that the war is conducted without any restrain. And I do not believe that killing even more civilians is in the interest of the future security and peace here in the region”.

Asked if Israelis were respecting international humanitarian law, Mr Lazzarini said: “Listen, we are now in a situation where there is a total siege being imposed in the Gaza Strip. We are in a situation where more than a million people have been asked to be displaced. So this amounts to collective punishment, and collective punishment is a violation of international humanitarian law. We call to the Israelis and to anyone relevant in this conflict to respect international humanitarian law. There is no exception for anyone”.