The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) has warned that Israel is continuing to dismantle the “very means of people’s survival” across Gaza, and “systematically” hindering humanitarian access to the Palestinian enclave, Al Jazeera reports.

The agency said Israel allowed UN agencies on Sunday to deliver food, water and basic medical supplies to critical patients who had been forced to flee Kamal Adwan Hospital and take shelter at the non-functional Indonesian Hospital.

But this mission was “exceptional” because Israel has denied all other attempts to access the area over the past three days.

“OCHA emphasises that it should not require breaking a siege to help survivors in critical need. Aid workers must be granted safe and unhindered access to assist people wherever they are,” it said.

“OCHA stresses that humanitarian access remains systematically hindered across the Gaza Strip. In the past three days, over 60 per cent of the 42 UN-coordinated movements were denied, interfered with or impeded on the ground,” it added.