The humanitarian crisis in southern Gaza is “quickly deteriorating” for tens of thousands of displaced people crammed into an area along Gaza’s coast amid “burning summer heat” and where “active conflict and lawlessness” is making it almost impossible for relief workers to meet “soaring needs”, Al Jazeera reports.

That was just one of several warnings on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza contained in the latest situation report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

OCHA also reports that at camps for displaced people in central and southern Gaza, access to water is critically low and there is a severe lack of food, as well as milk and formula for babies. “Many households report having only one meal every day, with some having one meal every two or three days,” the OCHA report states.

Israeli-imposed constraints continue to “severely undermine the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance and services across Gaza, including the delivery of food and nutrition assistance, medical care, protection and shelter support, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to hundreds of thousands of people”, the OCHA report adds.