UN aid agencies on Tuesday called for Gaza to be flooded with humanitarian assistance, warning that “time is running out” and that the Palestinian territory is “on the brink of a full-scale famine”, news agency AFP has reported. 

“We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation,” the World Food Programme’s (WFP) executive director, Cindy McCain, said in a joint statement with UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex has said that Gaza has already entered the third stage of famine. “Malnutrition is claiming the lives of our patients despite our efforts to save them,” Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera.