The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6am and 11pm, starting from Sunday.

Work on a UAE project to run a new pipeline that will supply water from a desalination facility in neighbouring Egypt to around 600,000 Palestinians along the coast would also begin in a few days, the Israeli military said.

Some had been looted in the area of Khan Younis after entering Gaza, residents said.

Naima Abu Ful holds her malnourished 2-year-old child, Yazan, at their home in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Source: AP / Jehad Alshrafi

Aid groups said last week there was mass hunger among Gaza’s 2.2 million people and international alarm over the humanitarian situation has increased.

He claimed there was no starvation in Gaza, but appeared to acknowledge conditions were critical.

Health officials at al-Awda and al-Aqsa hospitals in central Gaza said Israeli firing killed at least 17 people waiting for aid trucks.