A Palestinian child [Source: Reuters]

The northern Gaza Strip is still heading toward a famine, the deputy U.N. food chief said on Thursday, appealing for a greater volume and diversity of aid to be allowed into the enclave and for Israel to allow direct access from its Ashdod port through Erez crossing.

Israel pledged three weeks ago to improve aid access, including reopening Erez and allowing the use of Ashdod port. The move came after U.S. President Joe Biden demanded steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying the U.S. could place conditions on support if Israel did not act.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that Israel’s commitments to improve aid access in the Gaza Strip had so far had limited and sometimes no impact. A U.N.-backed report published in March said famine was imminent and likely by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave of 2.3 million people by July.

Both Skau – and U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, who briefed the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday – said more nutritional and medical aid needed to enter Gaza to avert a famine.

Israel’s military said last week that eight WFP trucks of flour for Gaza came from Ashdod for the first time.

But they had to travel through Israel to be inspected at the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing on Gaza’s southern border before travelling back up an Israeli military road along the Gaza border fence to enter northern Gaza via Erez crossing.

The U.N. is in talks with the United States about a floating pier it is constructing to allow maritime aid deliveries to Gaza directly from Cyprus. But both Skau and Kaag said maritime access was no substitute for land deliveries, which needed to remain the focus of aid operations.