The recently announced decision of Robert Turner to resign as director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, after three years in the post, is a blow to the people he worked so hard to help. Yet his parting message highlights the remarkable spirit of those same people, for whom he has pledged to continue fighting.

Turner, who intends to leave his job in mid-July, assumed the job in May 2012. Since then, he has witnessed two major Israeli assaults against the tiny besieged Palestinian Strip, a place that he described as “indomitable”.

As Turner put it, “Gaza is a place where the human spirit has shown its indomitability time and time again,” and where, one might add, its people, largely refugees of 1948 and their descendants, have proved their ingenuity and resilience time and time again.

Turner did not give reasons for his resignation. A UN source has said it resulted from frustration and a loss of hope that conditions in the Gaza Strip will improve. The same source said the UN agency was “disappointed” that the necessary radical solutions had yet to be found regarding the need to rebuild the Strip.