Aid reaching Gaza a 'drop in the ocean' of what is needed, says UN
Peace talks in the Middle East came to a standstill last week after the US and Israel recalled negotiating teams from Qatar, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff blaming Hamas for a "lack of desire" to reach an agreement.
Since then, Israel has promised military pauses in three populated areas of Gaza to allow designated UN convoys of aid to reach desperate Palestinians.
The UK, which is joining efforts to airdrop aid into the enclave and evacuate children in need of medical assistance, said that access to supplies must be "urgently" widened.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-Ordinator Tom Fletcher said the situation in Gaza is "unrelentingly grim at the moment for civilians".
"Gaza is starving. One in every three people has not eaten for days and days in a row," he said.
"So the needs are enormous, and we're ready to go. You know, the aid that's got in in recent months is a drop in the ocean of what's needed."
Mr Fletcher said they were "ready to mobilise" and hoped that the routes were secured so food, water, medicine and shelter could be brought to desperate civilians.
In relation to how much aid will be allowed in, he said it is not clear.
During the last ceasefire, over 42 days, 600 to 700 trucks a day were getting into Gaza.
"That's what we need right now", he said. "That's what the civilians in Gaza need. Yesterday, I think we got some somewhere around over 100 trucks in, nothing like enough."
He said that all the border crossings need to be opened and all restrictions on visas and other "bureaucratic restraints" and "security restrictions" should be removed.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to raise the prospect of reviving ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas when he meets US President Donald Trump in Scotland.
The prime minister will travel to Ayrshire, where the US president is staying at his Turnberry golf resort, for wide-ranging discussions on trade and the Middle East as international concern grows over starvation in Gaza.
'Unrelentingly focused'
Mr Fletcher said that the agency is facing a tough time but remains "unrelentingly focused".
"I'm talking to the teams on the ground last night, this morning. They themselves are hungry. They themselves have been going without food. Incredibly brave people and they're driving these trucks facing enormous crowds of desperate, starving Palestinians."
Mr Fletcher said the situation was a "starvation crisis" and a "medical crisis". He added that decisions were made daily as to what trucks to try to get into the territory.
Gaza needed to be flooded with aid, he said.
"We can do that. We've got the aid. We could reach everyone in Gaza with food, with medical support, with shelter. But we've got to get going at much, much bigger scale."
Reacting to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that his government was being unfairly blamed and that there are secure routes, Mr Fletcher said, "well, if those secure routes have existed, they've been very, very hard to find".
"For months, there's been a blockade, little bits has gone in now and again, but the situation on the ground is dire, and I think that's why world leaders, across the planet, have been so clear, so firm that we have to be allowed to do our job."
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