As spokesman for the the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Chris Gunness has certainly seen his share of tragedy in the past few weeks in Gaza.

Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic organization that operates in Gaza, is being pursued by Israel’s military there, and hundreds — if not thousands — of innocent Palestinian civilians have been caught in the crossfire.

But an alleged Israeli airstrike on a UN school full of women and children was too much for the former BBC reporter.

Appearing on Al Jazeera Arabic to condemn the attack, Gunness said on Wednesday, “The rights of Palestinians, even their children, are wholesale denied and it’s appalling."

The spokesman then clears his throat, bites his lip, blinks a few times, takes a breath and says, “My pleasure” to the interviewer off camera, before breaking down in tears.

He can be heard sobbing as the camera pans away.

Later, Gunness tweeted the following:

UNRWA is overwhelmed in #Gaza we have reached breaking point, our staff are being killed our shelters overflowing. Where will it end? RT — Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) July 30, 2014

“I’m not emotionally drained,” he told BuzzFeed of the incident. “I’m made of a sterner stuff, as my English grandmother would say.” He added:

“My feelings pale into insignificance compared to the enormity of the tragedy confronting each and every other person in Gaza at this time. It’s important to humanize the statistics and to realize that there is a human being with a heart and soul behind each statistic and that the humanity that lies behind these statistics should never be forgotten.”

Reporters and colleagues offered their support via Twitter:

Follow, follow, follow @ChrisGunness. Think off him as a voice of sanity in the madness of what's happening in the Gaza Strip. — Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) July 30, 2014

.@ChrisGunness your compassion and consistent voice of humanity is an aspiration to us all. It's a privilege to work with you! — Abby Smardon (@abbysmardon) July 30, 2014

The kindest man I know, @ChrisGunness breaks down mid interview while speaking about #gaza deaths. https://t.co/UBj7MKelq9 — Lulu Garcia-Navarro (@lourdesgnavarro) July 30, 2014

NPR News Middle East correspondent Deborah Amos, who got to know Gunness while covering the Syrian uprising, told Mashable that she isn’t surprised he wept on TV. “The guy feels everything that is happening on the ground,” Amos said. “That's what makes him so good at his job.”

“He's seen the worst and he reacted as a human being rather than an official."

The spokesman, a former BBC reporter who’s witnessed the carnage of wars from Bosnia to Iraq, is no stranger to conflict. Beginning in the late-80's Gunness worked for the BBC World Service Eastern Service, according to a bio on the BBC's website, where he reported on Burma's pro-democracy uprisings.

"The Burmese people themselves rose up," Gunness reflected of the experience in 2003. "They are the true heroes of 1988. All I did was report on it."

Soon after, he landed at the United Nations in New York City as the BBC's correspondent.

Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), holds a framed picture on August 3, 2009 in east Jerusalem's Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Image: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images

Then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and Gunness had a front-row seat, as the global body negotiated its first Iraq crisis.

In 1994, Gunness jumped to the United Nations, where he became the organization's spokesman stationed in the Balkans during the war in Bosnia. He was quoted in an August 1995 story by The New York Times, describing a scene that sounds all too familiar to those concerned by the growing crisis in Gaza:

"A war that begins with civilian areas being shelled at 5 a.m. when women and children are asleep in their beds, and ends with a massive exodus of more than 100,000 people is surely tantamount to ethnic cleansing. I have no intention of comparing types of evil," he said.

Gunness would return to the BBC for another decade before heading back to the United Nations, eventually landing with UNRWA in Gaza.

On Wednesday, when he showed his sadness over the current situation, the spokesman needed not say another word.