The Gaza Strip’s health ministry has said the conflict with Israel has killed more than 21,000, as Israel kept pounding the besieged territory with air strikes and shelling, Reuters reports.

Gaza’s spiraling humanitarian crisis has amplified calls for an end to the hostilities.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on the international community to take “urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril facing the population of Gaza and jeopardising the ability of humanitarian workers to help” the many in need.

In a statement, the WHO said “hungry people again stopped our convoys… in the hope of finding food”.

Gaza’s 2.4 million people have suffered severe shortages of water, food, fuel and medicines, with only limited aid entering the territory. An estimated 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced, the UN says.