The head of the UN refugee agency has expressed grave concern over the situation in the Gaza Strip, calling the situation a "desperate humanitarian emergency."

NHK interviewed UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Grandi served as commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees until 2014.

He said the world has seen in the past few days "the terrible attacks of Hamas against civilians in Israel and then the counteroffensive that is now causing a lot of destruction and loss of lives in Gaza."

He expressed grave concern, saying it is "a desperate humanitarian emergency because people in Gaza have nowhere to go. The Gaza Strip is very small and very confined."

He also expressed fears that the conflict may "spread beyond Israel and Palestine and engulf the whole region, a region that is already very fragile."

He explained that his agency is providing support to refugees in Ukraine, Syria and Sudan, and "all these crises are getting closer to each other with Ukraine."

He said "everything is also geographically more and more interconnected," and there are "many political interconnections."

He said he is "worried that we are looking at the progressive spread of conflict in a fragile region."

On the role Japan can play, Grandi said, "Japan is a leader in humanitarian assistance," which is important in Gaza now, "but without forgetting all the other crises" in Sudan and Ukraine.

He expressed hopes that Japan will continue "to be an example to other countries" in terms of humanitarian assistance.