Four US Army vessels also departed a base in Virginia on Tuesday carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment needed to build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast to facilitate aid shipments, AFP reports.

The new facility — which will consist of an offshore platform and a pier to bring aid ashore — is expected to be up and running “at the 60-day mark”, US Army Brigadier General Brad Hinson told journalists.

Aid groups have been warning of the risk of famine in besieged Gaza for weeks, and the United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing the territory’s north for deliveries of food and other humanitarian supplies.

Gaza has experienced dire shortages of food and other essentials since Israel imposed a siege at the outset of the crisis, and prices have shot up for what food there is.

“Today, there are many things in the market that are not available; even if they are available, they are at astronomical prices,” said dentist and Gaza City resident Baher Hassouna, one of the 1.5 million Gazans displaced to the southern border city of Rafah.