The United Nations has warned that Gaza was facing deepening hunger 50 days into a total Israeli blockade on all aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory.

“Gaza has become a land of desperation,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said on X. “Hunger is spreading and deepening, deliberate and manmade.”

In his post on X, Lazzarini questioned “how much longer until hollow words of condemnation will translate into action to lift the siege, resume a ceasefire and save whatever is left of humanity?”

The UNRWA chief decried that two million people in Gaza, most of them women and children, “are undergoing collective punishment”.

“The wounded, sick and elderly are deprived of medical supplies and care,” he said, even as humanitarian organisations like UNRWA have thousands of trucks waiting with supplies that risk expiring.

“Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war,” he charged.

“The siege must be lifted, supplies must flow in, the hostages must be released, the ceasefire must resume.”