The head of the UN’s humanitarian affairs bureau Tom Fletcher has spoken to reporters about what he witnessed in Gaza during a recent visit, Al Jazeera reports.

“It was much, much worse than I’d anticipated, and I’d really prepared myself for the worst,” he said.

“The devastation, the desolation in northern Gaza is even greater there than it is in the south, and for miles and miles, it’s just rubble. My staff were trying to find a way back to their homes, using GPS, because there were no landmarks to navigate by. You couldn’t see what was a school, what was hospital, what was a home,” he told reporters.

“One of the first shocking things I saw driving in is the dogs going through the rubble. And I said to my colleague who was with me, why are the dogs so fat? And he said, well, because the dogs are looking for corpses. And you notice that the people are thin, and then you see that for miles and miles and miles.”

Fletcher also called on Israel to end its punishing blockade on Gaza, saying supplies of aid are at risk of running out “very, very fast”.

“The fact that we’re not getting fuel in means that incubators are being switched off,” he added.