THE humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached "an all-time low", a charity operating in the area has warned.
It comes as the World Central Kitchen was forced to shut its community soup kitchens as a result of Israel's ongoing blockade of humanitarian assistance.
Clemence Lagouardat, Gaza humanitarian lead with charity Oxfam, said the aid situation in Gaza has "reached an all-time low" and that there was not enough international pressure.
Lagouardat told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "We are in the worst place in terms of the humanitarian situation since October 2023, and as the closure and the full blockade on the Gaza Strip continues, every day the situation is getting worse.
"It's been now more than two months knowing that 90% of the population in Gaza is completely relying on humanitarian assistance, it just seems that it's going to continue.
"The international pressure is not enough. Even if countries start to speak out more, and even if the border reopens, we're going to probably end up in a system and in a mechanism that is not obeying by the humanitarian principle and that will not serve and support the population in Gaza."
When asked how big the threat to life in Gaza was, Lagouardat said: "Right now we are talking about children starving. There have been reports of more and more children ending up in hospitals.
"The rate of acute malnutrition has doubled in children in the past weeks. 75% of the population in Gaza right now is also reporting difficulty to access water.
"All of the population in Gaza is heavily impacted, whether it is access to food, access to water, access to medicine and health, access to education or shelter.
"Right now we have a population that is barely surviving."
Lagouradat said that any progress which had been made during the ceasefire deal was "long gone".
She added: "The ceasefire was barely enough to cover the needs that were there for the first 15 months of conflict. We barely gave enough to people to start recovering.
"The period of blockade is now longer than the period where aid actually entered the Gaza Strip.
"The forced displacement of the population has been renewed, we have now more than 400,000 people that had to move again, and the resumption of hostilities. So the effects of the ceasefire are long gone."
Lagouradat described Israel's plan to take over aid distribution in Gaza through private companies as "a recipe for disaster".
UN agencies have said they will not co-operate with the plan because it "weaponise[s]" aid, as Jens Laerke, the spokesman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said: "There is no reason to put in place a system that is at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organisation."
Lagouradat continued: "It doesn't respond to the needs of the population on the ground. It doesn't respect the principle that makes sure that aid is delivered safely and independently to the people in Gaza.
"We know that it's going to be done by private companies that have no experience in delivering aid.
"It's a recipe for disaster, not a solution."
Also speaking on the programme was The National's foreign affairs editor, David Pratt.
Pratt said: "A resolution is as far away, if not further away, than it was at any point since the current war began.
"I know it's difficult for listeners to imagine an even bigger onslaught, but this will come by air, sea and land. The whole object of the exercise this time is to occupy Gaza.
"This is a permanent occupation that we're looking at here, with a shoving of the Palestinian population into a tiny, tiny part of Gaza."
Pratt added that Israel's plan to distribute aid in Gaza through private companies was "not fit for purpose" and "bodes very ill indeed".
