Three United Nations agencies called on Israel to allow access to the port of Ashdod, north of Gaza, for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid, AFP reports.

Bringing food and supplies to the besieged population of Gaza, which is increasingly at risk of famine, also depends on the opening of new entry routes into the territory, the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a joint statement.

The use of Ashdod, located some 40 km north of the Gaza border, is “critically needed by aid agencies”, they said, while calling for a “fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza”.

Allowing humanitarian agencies to use that port “would enable significantly larger quantities of aid to be shipped in and then trucked directly to the badly affected northern regions of Gaza, which few convoys have managed to reach”, they said.