The United Nations said a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were at risk of famine.

Trucks carrying aid have begun entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. Source: Getty / Amir Levy

“Some bakeries will begin receiving flour to produce bread, and we expect the distribution of bread to begin later today,” Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency.

“During the ceasefire, 600 trucks used to enter every day, which means that the current quantity is a drop in the ocean, nothing,” he said.

Workers produce bread for distribution at the World Food Programme bakery after a limited amount of flour entered the Gaza Strip. Source: Getty / Anadolu

Bakeries backed by the UN’s World Food Programme would produce the bread and the agency’s staff would hand it out — a more controlled system than previously when bakers sold it directly to the public at a low cost, he added.

Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies, with Israel’s blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.

UN agencies have said that the amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.

“For them, I fear hunger and disease more than I do Israeli bombardment,” the 38-year-old added.

Israel orders evacuation of parts of northern Gaza

In an Arabic-language statement on Thursday, the military said it was “operating with intense force” in 14 areas in the northern Gaza Strip, accusing “terrorist organisations” of operating there.

Israeli strikes have continued along the Gaza Strip. Source: AAP / Mohammed Saber/EPA

Israeli military strikes on Gaza killed at least 52 Palestinians across the enclave on Thursday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.

In Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, a tank shell hit a medicine warehouse inside Al-Awda Hospital and set it ablaze, the health ministry said.

But if they were not returned, he said it would press ahead with a military campaign to gain total control of Gaza.