Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), has urged the Israeli government to grant the UN agency access to the Gaza Strip, warning that the humanitarian catastrophe there could be “like none other”.

“It’s a tragedy. And what we need right now is an immediate ceasefire, complete, unfettered access, along with the safe fence roads, every gate open, to feed people and stop this catastrophe from happening,” McCain told the US broadcaster ABC News.

“If we don’t do that, it’s going to be a humanitarian catastrophe, as I’ve said, like none other.”

“We need the access. We need the Israelis to let us in so we can do our job. And we do it — we are the best at what we do, I might add. And […] we can not only get in, but we can get in at scale, which is what is most important right now,” the WFP official said.

“We’ve been a part of some of those meetings. Some of them we have not been. But again, we’ve seen no plan,” McCain said about coordination with the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.