JOMANA Elkhalili points towards her fridge. “As you can see, there is no food except some cans,” she says.

“We are living in starvation.”

An aid worker working for Oxfam, Jomana lives with her family in the north of Gaza where a report today warned that “famine is imminent” as an estimated 70% of the population faces catastrophic hunger.

The report came from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a partnership of more than a dozen governments, UN aid and other agencies that determines the severity of food crises.

It says virtually everyone in Gaza is struggling to get enough food, and around 210,000 people in northern Gaza are in Phase 5, the highest, which refers to catastrophic hunger.

It comes as aid groups say they face a burdensome Israeli process to import humanitarian aid, and that distribution in much of Gaza, especially the north, is virtually impossible because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of law and order.

Oxfam went as far as that Israel’s government ultimately bears accountability for the breakdown of the international response to the crisis in Gaza and warned that people living in Gaza will suffer mass death from disease and starvation far beyond the current 31,000 Palestinian war casualties unless Israel takes immediate steps to end its violations.

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They cited the example of Israeli authorities rejecting a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen, incubators and Oxfam water and sanitation gear all of which is now stockpiled at Al Arish – just 40kms away from the border of 2.3 million desperate Palestinians.

They said the aid has been rejected over weeks and months as a result of an unpredictable and chaotic regime of approval, scanning and inspection, ultimately controlled by Israeli authorities.

Hospitals, meanwhile, are under extreme pressure.

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, head of the paediatric department at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north of Gaza, says there are “many cases” of elderly people and especially children showing symptoms of dehydration and malnutrition.

He adds: “25-30 children are admitted to the hospital on a daily basis, with half of them suffering from dehydration and malnutrition.”

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Safiya explains that a two-month-old child has just died and that others are on the “same trajectory” if the situation isn't addressed.

This all comes as the staff themselves work on zero food.

“As a medical team managing the hospital, we have not been able to secure even one meal,” he says.

“Everyone is suffering from physical weakness and extreme exhaustion. Our staff are worn out working 24/7 without food.”

The little food that is available is poor quality or even dangerous, explains Jomana.

She shows the little vegetables they have left and bread being cooked over piles of plastic or in rusty ovens.

For Jomana, as an aid worker, it all feels “helpless”. She sighs, adding: “I can’t give support to my people or even my family”.