Israeli control over border crossing puts children in Rafah at 'edge of survival'

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said in its latest rapid assessment report that Israel's continued control and closure of the Rafah border crossing is "choking off the entry of life-saving aid into Gaza".

"The continued block on the entry of critical humanitarian items via [the] Rafah Crossing and continued hostilities would have serious consequences on access to food and nutrition services," the UN report says.

The report added that prior to Israel's takeover of the crossing, an average of 48 relief trucks and 166,000 litres of diesel were entering Gaza on a daily basis.

The report included an older warning from the UN's children agency, Unicef, which says that over 600,000 children "crammed" in Rafah were already "highly vulnerable and at the edge of survival", adding that an Israeli ground incursion would "expose them to catastrophic risks".