GAZA urgently needs more aid to avoid widespread famine and disease among its desperate population, the heads of three major United Nations agencies warned today.

They spoke out a day after demonstrations across the world saw thousands of people march in support of either the Palestinians or Israel. 

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the resistance group’s surprise cross-border attack on October 7, has prompted unprecedented destruction in the tiny coastal enclave and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe that has displaced most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people and pushed more than a quarter into starvation, according to the UN.

The World Food Programme (WFP), Unicef and the World Health Organisation said that there was a need for new aid routes into Gaza, an increase in the number of lorries allowed in each day and  for aid workers and those seeking their help to be able to move around safely.

“People in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks filled with food,” WFP executive director Cindy McCain said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll since the start of the war has now reached at least 24,100, with many thousands of people still trapped, dead or alive, beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Women and children account for two-thirds of those killed in the war, the ministry added. Israel claims that its forces have killed roughly 8,000 resistance fighters.

The increase in the death toll came as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in various countries on Sunday to mark the 100th day of the conflict. 

In the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, protesters waved Palestinian flags or wore the keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf, to express their solidarity in a rally organised by Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest religious political party.

Local Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman said: “Resolutions will not solve this problem,” adding that all “conscientious people” should support South Africa’s legal action at the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

In London, protesters held posters bearing photos and the words “100 days in hell” to express their solidarity with Israel.

Ayelet Svatitzky, the sister of a hostage taken on October 7 who is still being held in Gaza, said: “My biggest fear is I don’t know how long it’s going to last, I don’t know how long he can hold on and I don't know what his condition is.” Her brother, Nadav Popplewell, is one of two British nationals remaining in Hamas captivity.

Several hundred protesters turned out in Paris. Placards showed the faces of Israeli hostages and a large banner laid out on the ground read: “Bring them home now!”