WASHINGTON — The Gaza Strip suffered about $18.5 billion in damages to critical infrastructure in the first four months of the Israeli bombardment launched in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, according to a joint World Bank and the United Nations report released on Tuesday.

The interim damage assessment report, which received financial support from the European Union, estimates the damages are equivalent to 97% of the combined GDP of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022 and left 26 million tons of debris and rubble that would take years to remove.

Conditions have been deadly for aid workers in Gaza long before the seven workers with World Central Kitchen were killed in a strike this week, staff members at Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said at a news conference this morning.

Dr. Amber Alayyan, deputy program manager for the Middle East, pointed out that almost 200 aid workers have been killed working in Gaza in response to a question about whether conditions would change following the World Central Kitchen strike.

"I would ask the question, is there a difference when foreign nationals are killed versus Palestinians who are killed?" Alayyan said. "Because to me, there shouldn't be. A humanitarian worker's a humanitarian worker. A doctor is a doctor and a nurse is a nurse. And it shouldn't matter what passport you carry."

The organization's representatives emphasized that they have been coordinating all of their movements with the Israeli military since November, but Alayyan said that “the concept of deconfliction at this point has become almost a joke.”

Five aid workers with MSF have been killed in Gaza over the last six months, as well as two family members who were with staff when their shelter was hit by an Israeli strike in February. Christopher Lockyear, MSF's secretary-general, said he was personally promised an investigation into a strike on a convoy in November but has not heard from Israel's department in charge of humanitarian aid.

"We have been expressing our concerns around coordination for several months, and that what really needs to change is the way this conflict is being conducted," Lockyear said. "And that we have, ultimately, a cease-fire — which is needed immediately and it needs to be sustained."

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, will visit "Israel and Palestine" next week as part of his role as chair of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, his office said today.

"While there, the cardinal will meet with local Christian, Jewish, and Islamic religious leaders, visit various social service and humanitarian activities, as well as mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine," the statement said.

Dolan will meet with local representatives from Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities as well as social services groups. His office said he hopes to meet with the families of hostages, human rights groups, and share a Sabbath meal.

"A more complete itinerary will be shared when finalized," his office said.

President Joe Biden said Israel's treatment of the humanitarian situation in Gaza is "unacceptable" in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a White House readout of the call.

Israel must implement steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers, Biden told Netanyahu.

"He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps," the readout said.

Biden also urged Netanyahu to empower his negotiation team to make a deal on hostage releases as an "immediate ceasefire is essential" to protecting civilian life.

Malnutrition cases among children in Gaza are worsening despite efforts to increase aid into northern Gaza, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban told the United Nations Security Council.

"In March, we reported that 1 in 3 children under 2 years of age - in the Northern Gaza Strip suffer from acute malnutrition, a figure that has more than doubled in the last two months," Chaiban said. "Dozens of children in the Northern Gaza Strip have reportedly died from malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks and half the population is facing catastrophic food insecurity."

Last month, a United Nations-led analysis of food insecurity warned that northern Gaza could fall into famine at any moment. Numerous countries have attempted to push more aid into the region, but an attack on one of Gaza's largest providers of meals this week has further threatened conditions.

Dr. Amber Alayyan, Médecins Sans Frontières deputy program manager for the Middle East, said in a news conference today that drops of aid alone will not help the actual disease that is malnutrition.

"If we were talking six months ago, yes, food might have been great ... sure we still need that," Alayyan said. "But we're talking about malnutrition, which is a medical problem which requires medical treatment and to treat it you have to have access to the population and that is not possible in Gaza."

Al-Shifa Hospital, once a cornerstone of medical care in Gaza City, was destroyed after a two-week Israeli military operation at the complex. International health officials have expressed increasing concern over the state of medical care in northern Gaza as medical facilities continue to be under siege.

UNITED NATIONS — The Palestinians want the Security Council to vote later this month on their revived request for full membership in the United Nations, despite the United States reiterating Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinians must first negotiate a peace agreement.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, said 140 countries recognize the state of Palestine, and “we believe it is high time now for our state to become a full member at the United Nations.”

The Palestinians are making a fresh bid for U.N. membership as the war between Israel and Hamas that began Oct. 7 nears its sixth month, putting the unresolved decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the spotlight after years on the back burner.

WASHINGTON — An Israeli-American hostage family member sharply criticized former President Donald Trump for repeatedly referring to people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as “hostages.”

"It’s excruciatingly painful," the family member told NBC News. "It’s not the same as being kidnapped, dragged across the border and taken into a tunnel beneath Gaza, where you’re held for months in the dark. That’s a hostage."

The family member added that it isn't just inaccurate, "it’s cruel."

Trump has repeatedly referred to the pretrial detainees who are charged in connection with the riot at the Capitol as "hostages." An NBC News analysis has found that just 15 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack are currently being held pretrial at the order of federal judges.

Israel must apologize and pay compensation to the family of the Polish aid worker who was killed in the strikes on the Gaza aid convoy this week, Poland's leaders have said.

Damian Soból was killed along with six other workers of the World Central Kitchen charity, an incident that has drawn international outrage.

This morning, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk demanded a fuller explanation of what happened and said it was a matter of decency to pay compensation to the family of Soból, 35.

“I have no doubt at all that Israel should pay compensation to the family of our killed citizen. It should be an appropriate compensation,” Duda said. “I hope such a compensation will be paid in a just and honest way.”

Tusk said it was a “senseless and unnecessary death” and that Israel should apologize and provide detailed information about the circumstances of the deaths.