United Nations agencies and other aid organisations decried the devastating toll wreaked by six months of fighting in Gaza, warning that the situation was “beyond catastrophic”, AFP reports.

“Six months is an awful milestone,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said, warning that “humanity has been all but abandoned”.

For the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the caretaker of the Geneva Conventions, “a steady flow of humanitarian aid” into Gaza was vital, but it was “only part of the solution”.

“Both sides must conduct their military operations in a way that spares civilians caught in the middle,” it said on X.