The United Nations humanitarian affairs office says Israel nearly doubled its rejections of aid missions in Gaza this month despite calls for much more assistance for desperate Palestinians, Al Jazeera reports.

“In August, the number of humanitarian missions and movements within Gaza that have been denied access by Israeli authorities has doubled in the north (68 vs 30) and almost doubled in the south (99 vs 53) compared with July,” the group said in a situation update.

“Between August 1-29, out of the 199 planned humanitarian missions coordinated with the Israeli authorities for northern Gaza, 74 (37 per cent) were facilitated, 68 (34pc) were denied access, 42 (21pc) were impeded [including missions that succeeded] and 15 (8pc) were cancelled due to logistical, operational or security issues.”