Five United Nations agencies appealed for more global assistance as they called the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which is blockaded and bombarded by Israel "catastrophic."
Their statement came as Israel said it would step up its strikes in Gaza to increase pressure on Hamas, and its senior officers warned troops to be ready to enter the besieged Palestinian territory.
The statement by the U.N. agencies came as the first aid trucks arrived in Gaza from Egypt on Saturday.
"More than 1.6 million people in Gaza are in critical need of humanitarian aid," said the statement from agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the children's agency.
"Children, pregnant women and the elderly remain the most vulnerable. Nearly half of Gaza's population are children," it added.
"Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities," it added.
"It is now catastrophic. The world must do more."
The other three agencies to sign the statement were the World Food Programme, the development agency UNDP and the UNFPA, the population fund.
Israel has been criticized for the mass murder of children, women, elderly and even animals without exception in the past two weeks. The country bombed U.N. refugee camps, schools, bakeries, churches, mosques, and hospitals, including the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, where almost 500 Palestinians were killed. On Friday, it warned the Al-Quds Hospital to evacuate and issued similar evacuation orders for 20 other hospitals on Saturday.
Also on Saturday, the Israeli military warned civilians in northern Gaza that they would be treated and killed as terrorists if they did not leave the area for the south.
Israel has caused over 4,000 civilian deaths and tens of thousands of injuries since Oct. 7 and deprived 2.3 million Gazans of basic human rights like food, water, medical aid and electricity
