A spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund James Elder has said the message he receives from anyone he encounters in Gaza is, “We need food,” Al Jazeera reports.

It is “the first thing they want to tell me”, Elder, speaking from Rafah in southern Gaza, said in an interview with Democracy Now.

“They are saying that because their assumption is the world doesn’t know, because how would this be allowed to happen if the world knew?” he said.