“I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation — and it’s man-made,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

“Aid has been flowing into Gaza,” he said, but blamed the United Nations and its associates for failing to pick up truckloads of foodstuffs and other essentials cleared and waiting on the Gaza side of the border.

Access to aid in Gaza

Getting vital aid into Gaza and to the more than two million people who need it has become a key issue in the conflict, with reports from doctors and aid agencies of increasing cases of malnutrition and starvation.

Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a 1.5-year-old child in Gaza, faces life-threatening malnutrition as the humanitarian situation worsens due to ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade. Source: Getty / Anadolu / Getty Images

The humanitarian organisations said in a joint statement that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched inside and outside Gaza, while people were “trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires”.

The 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get aid since late May, most near GHF sites.

Mediators continue to pursue truce

GHF said the UN, which refuses to work with it over neutrality concerns, “has a capacity and operational problem” and called for “more collaboration” to deliver life-saving aid.