The United Nations and the Red Cross have sounded the alarm at the dire situation in the Gaza Strip, demanding international action, AFP reports.

“The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned in a statement.

“Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate.

“Food stocks have now mainly run out,” spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA Olga Cherevko, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Gaza City.

“Community kitchens have begun to shut down (and) more people are going hungry,” she said, pointing to reports of children and other very vulnerable people who have died from malnutrition and … from the lack of food“, adding that “The blockade is deadly.”

Water access was also “becoming impossible”, she warned. “In fact, as I speak to you, just downstairs from this building, people are fighting for water. There’s a water truck that has just arrived, and people are killing each other over water,” she said.

The situation is so bad, she said that a friend had described to her a few days ago seeing “people burning … because of the explosions and there was no water to save them”.

At the same time, Cherevko lamented that “hospitals report running out of blood units as mass casualties continue to arrive”. “Gaza lies in ruins, Rubble fills the streets… Many nights, blood-curdling screams of the injured pierce the skies following the deafening sound of another explosion.”