About 20 per cent of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people have been displaced yet again in the past week due to intensified Israeli military operations which have seen the territory pounded from the air, land and sea, resulting in more civilians killed and infrastructure destroyed, according to the UN.

It its latest flash assessment of conditions in Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) also reports that “acute malnutrition” has increased amid the forced relocation of Gaza’s population by Israeli forces and the risk of infectious disease is growing.

While some fuel and humanitarian food trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since Sunday, “the aid supplies remain largely insufficient”, the UN said in its assessment.

“Already catastrophic levels of hunger faced by the population” could worsen, the UN warns.